The Strike Team
by Agent Frostbite
Summary: Nikki works best solo. No-one else to worry about keeping in the loop or protecting or being responsible for. She doesn't want a partner. So how does she end up with a whole team?
1. Laserbeak

Nicole Skylar flipped the page of the Sherlock Holmes book she was reading and leaned against the counter. Her eyes roved across the page, soaking the words in slowly and trying to ignore the various construction-related particles floating through the air.

The whole 82nd floor was being redone, and she was sitting at the bar, seeing as it was the only spot on the whole floor that wasn't being used to hold something or another. Sure, she could've just moved to a different floor, because they were only redoing that one at the time. But to leave the room would have involved several rather complicated routes to find an exit from the floor that didn't involve getting in the builders' way or calling one of the flight-enabled Avengers to pick her and her book up from a trip off the balcony.

Various building tools and materials littered the floor and counters. If there was any rhyme or rhythm to how everything was placed, she couldn't see it. The chairs and couches had been removed or covered with thick plastic. There was only one spot in the room – aside from just sitting on a bare patch of floor – and she was in it.

A clatter from the vents got her attention. She looked up, listened for a moment, and then sniffled as refocused on the sentence she had been reading. A random clatter could've been anything from the building settling to Clint being overly loud with his vent travel. A minute later, she heard more clattering. It only caught her attention once she remembered the vents had all been closed off to inter-floor travel while the reconstruction was going on. Granted, Clint was likely to ignore the order, but he usually made no noise.

On the off chance it was an intruder, she put the book down and picked up a spare pipe lying of the ground near her.

No sooner had she done so, a metallic bird burst out of the vents. He was Cybertronian, silver with red eyes, and completely vulnerable to attack. "I am Laserbeak, the mighty saboteur who will take Avengers Tower and claim it for the Decepti-" _Bam!_ His tirade was stopped by Nikki lashing out with the pipe. Her first blow connected with the side of his face.

"Ow! That's my optic, you stupid human!" he shouted irately. Clearly, the first blow didn't do the job, so she had to whack him over the back of the head a second time. That finally knocked him out. After quickly getting over her initial shock at the 'OMG; actual Cybertronian!', she calmly set down the pipe, cuffed the bird to the barstool she'd been sitting on, and called Fury. Her lips twisted up in an amused smile; she was looking forward to this call.

"Hey Fury, I think one of your boys lost his birdie."

* * *

"What do you mean you can't hold him?!" Nikki shouted, putting her hands on her hips. Fury looked at her like she was throwing a tantrum. Which she was, but she was _totally_ justified, because _of course_ they could hold him. She knew it, he knew it, anyone within earshot knew it; there was no use lying. Not that that ever stopped him.

"The cells wouldn't be able to effectively restrain him. He'd just end up escaping, and maybe take some classified information with him," Fury calmly defended his position. She had to credit him the absolutely straight face he wore while saying that. _"Let it never be said he's not a good liar,"_ she thought.

"That's a total lie," Nikki scoffed in response. "Those cells could hold _me_ , and I'm the most notorious escape artist on the planet. _I_ helped you _design_ them!" She pointed to herself earnestly while saying the last sentence.

"Be that as it may, I just don't think they'd be able to hold him. He might be able to hack his way out or climb out through the vents. Maybe drill a hole in the walls, ceiling, or floor, or pry the door open," he explained, again calmly. How he managed it, she could never tell.

"That's the weakest list of excuses I've ever heard you make," she snapped back. "So, what are you planning on doing with him, genius?"

"There's an opening at the Triskellion in a couple weeks. I'm intending on shipping him there when they're ready. In the meantime, I think the safest place for him to be is under house arrest at the Tower."

That took a minute to register. "The Tower?" she asked. "You want him to stay at the _Tower_? Are you _nuts_?! That means _I_ have to watch him! I'm an Avenger, not some-some bad guy babysitter!" She was secretly proud of that one. "What makes you think I'm more equipped to handle keeping him under guard better than a Helicarrier full of trained SHIELD agents can?"

"I trust you," he replied simply. That ended the conversation.

* * *

Things did not go smoothly at the Tower for the next week. Neither Nikki nor Laserbeak were happy about having to be stuck with each other. They bickered and argued all day, every day, for a whole week. He'd make a snide remark, she'd snap back, and they would begin screaming at each other. Needless to say, everyone was sick of them, so Jan finally put a stop to it by saying she'd call Fury and arrange to have Laserbeak stay an extra week for every argument the two had. So they went from never stopping shouting at each other to never exchanging a word.

The silence was deafening, and honestly, Nikki didn't like it at all. She rather enjoyed having someone she could use as a verbal punching bag, no matter how terrible that was. She could never put the whole 'He _is_ a Decepticon, after all' into words, because that would make her a hypocrite of the highest order, and she enjoyed the moral high ground (even if said high ground was, like, an inch high) on that particular issue.

It was very much a coincidence, or a twist of fate, that saw him on the balcony on the newly refinished 82nd floor.

It was late, and most of the Tower occupants were asleep or getting there. All except Nikki, who wanted to stay up as late as possible in order to have a good excuse for not going to the World Security Meeting on Friday, two days away. She always hated those things. She already got enough nitpicking from the usual morons on the street or judgmental SHIELD agents. Not to mention the politicians. If she couldn't haul her butt out of bed early enough tomorrow, she couldn't go. She also 'forgot' to pack, but that was beside the point.

She'd gone up to get a drink of water when she saw him out there, staring at the ground 82 stories below him. She silently approached. Hank was supposed to be watching him to make sure he didn't escape, but despite the lack of a monitor, Laserbeak was making no moves to do so. She walked out to the balcony next to him and spoke to him for the first time in 5 days.

"You okay?" It came out far softer than she thought she could manage when concerning him. He clearly didn't hear her coming, because he jumped a foot, his gaze and attention going to her. He looked miserable for a half a second, but this was quickly replaced by his usual 'Don't care' attitude.

"Why do you care?" he asked harshly. "Don't you have important Avenger stuff to be doing?" And suddenly, his anger over the past almost two weeks was understandable, because the memory of someone else asking her that exact question jumped to the forefront of her mind.

 _"You okay?" The Doctor asked. The strange man had been bothering her, but not intentionally. He was being too nice, but he wasn't looking for anything she had. He seemed genuinely concerned about the 13-year-old bounty hunter, and that made her uneasy. She was already having doubts about her line of work and didn't need this guy adding to that._

 _"Why do you care? Don't you have something better to do than ask about me?" she snapped back. He didn't even look surprised. His answer almost knocked her clean off her feet._

 _"No, not really. Besides, I care about how you're feeling," he replied. He, a strange nobody whom she'd been nothing but mean and nasty to, cared about her? How? Why?_

 _A little voice, not her own, whispered quietly in her ear, '_ Some people are just wired to care. You used to be one of them. _'_

 _"Y'know, you could really help people with those powers," he remarked, drawing her from her thoughts. "There's more to life than your agenda. So..." he walked up to his blue box. "Wanna come with?" She didn't even think about the answer. She just walked right onboard and never looked back._

"No, not really. Listen..." she sighed. "I'm sorry."

"You...what?" he asked, unsure of how to handle this.

"I've been absolutely _terrible_ to you for the past two weeks, and for no good reason at all." She walked up beside him and leaned on the rail of the balcony, looking out over the city. "I should've tried to figure out why you were snapping at me rather than just shout back at you," she apologized. He looked at the railing for a minute, trying to come up with the right response.

"Well...for starters, you did hit me with a pipe," he finally said. She chuckled. "I guess...I'm just...scared."

"You? Scared? Of what?" she asked, tilting her head.

"I'm not...not really...a Decepticon anymore. They kicked me out," he replied, his voice sort of dull. "I kinda got offlined three weeks ago. Then, 8 days later, I wake up somewhere. I find my way back to the warship, only for Megatron to tell me I must've betrayed the cause and lock me up. So, I escaped and looked for a way to prove my loyalty to him," he explained.

"And you saw the Tower," Nikki finished, nodding. "If you could take it, you could get a lot of classified info and turn it over to him, thus proving your loyalty. Makes sense. You still planning on that? You know, your two-week sentence is almost up."

"I'm not so sure," he admitted. That was the last thing he said all night.

* * *

Friday night rolled around, and Nikki narrowly managed to avoid going to the meeting. She was gearing up to watch Bourne Ultimatum for the millionth time. Laserbeak obviously couldn't go with the others, so he stayed with her. She'd just put the movie in when – he must've heard _something_ she didn't – he shouted, "Get down!"

She dived behind the couch without a second thought as the bullets ripped through where she had been sitting mere seconds ago. She didn't even hear anyone come in. She poked her head around the couch to get a quick glance at her attackers. It was a HYDRA commando squad. Highly trained, they were the only attack-oriented aspect of HYDRA that wasn't completely moronic. It was a lucky thing he heard them when he did; she would have been dead without even seeing who had killed her.

Of course, that's when it clicked.

"Did you just save me?" she asked Laserbeak. Another round of bullets filled the air and prompted his reply.

"Can we talk about this sometime later when we're – oh, I don't know – not getting shot at?" His voice dripped sarcasm, but she hadn't expected any less. "Now, who are we dealing with?"

"HYDRA commando unit. Six guys, well-armed, well-trained. We can take 'em," she informed, not realizing her unconscious use of 'we.' Laserbeak, who still had his guns for some strange reason, opened fire on them. They retreated, and Nikki got the gun Widow stashed under the table. "Never before have I been so happy for Natasha's compulsive weapons-stashing habit." The look she received from the bird was well worth it.

Floor by floor, room by room, they cleared the Tower. She didn't fail to note how well they seemed to work together. Yes, she was impulsive, and he had a concerning lack of qualms about killing every single one of the invaders, but her style of fast attack blended well with his style of attacking from the sides and shadows. That didn't mean it was easy to take them down, only that it wasn't as difficult as it could've been.

They caught the final guy attempting to sneak away via the staircase, like an intelligent coward. Nikki, true to style, attacked him straight on, but without Laserbeak to act as unspoken back-up, and the fatigue of late night and a long chasing battle already under her belt, he had an advantage over her. It took a couple minutes, but she did slip up, and when she did, the HYDRA assassin pounced on the opportunity, pinning her to the wall and lifting a frighteningly long knife to her throat. She struggled, but his iron grip kept her secure in her spot

A gunshot echoed through the stairwell.

The last HYDRA commando fell to the ground, dead, with a single hole in the front of his skull. The bullet, so carefully aimed, embedded in the wall only millimeters from her ear. Nikki looked in shock to the top of the stairs, where Laserbeak was hovering. She breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing and peeling herself off the wall, stepping over the body as she climbed the stairs.

In some back part of her mind, she wondered if her casualness around dead bodies was a bad thing.

"Good job on almost getting killed again. Tell me, do the other Avengers have to rescue you frequently?" Laserbeak snarked. She smiled, though it wasn't apologetic in the slightest.

"No, I don't usually do so terribly, though I _have_ had a long couple of weeks." She hesitated. "Speaking of rescues…why'd you save me?"

"Because it would look really bad if you got killed and I didn't at least try to help," he replied with a half smirk. The smile changed to something…happy, knowing what he meant. When Fury called the next day, telling her that arrangements had been made, she said she didn't mind having to watch him all that much. Fury didn't take much persuading, which told her one thing:

He'd finally managed to get her to take a partner.


	2. Knock Out

Well, Laserbeak had been right. Breaking onto the Decepticon warship had been a bad idea. Nikki was just relieved that he wasn't rubbing her face in it like he usually did.

They'd been caught less than ten minutes after getting onboard – which had been a nightmare unto itself to do; who knew the 'Cons were that good with security? – and were promptly escorted directly to the MedBay rather than the detention block. They both knew what that meant. Laserbeak looked very uncomfortable being in such a compromising position. Nikki herself was attempting to not have a full-blown panic attack, because when Laserbeak was cornered, his instinct was to lash out. To get out of this one, they'd need calm intelligence, not snap reactions.

AKA, she had to save them. Again.

"Make sure you get the information out of them _before_ you start taking them apart, doctor," Megatron's threatening voice filled the room as he walked in. Nikki's eyes narrowed at the warlord's voice. She'd heard stories about him but had never seen him in person. She thought it was a good thing that she was restrained, or she'd have tried to pick a fight with him right then and there. Not exactly the best idea for an escape. "And do try to keep the girl intact. I have a few ideas on how best to...dispose of her."

And there was the panic, back again like some old, unwanted guy who was convinced he was her friend.

"Of course, my liege," the doctor answered. Oh, that voice was all vanity and selfishness. The medic walked in, and the first thing that stuck in Nikki's mind wasn't the scarlet paint job, it wasn't the artful detailing, it wasn't even the sleek alt mode that she could tell was an Aston Martin One-77 – and boy, did she want to see it for herself.

It was how small he was.

Maybe 15 or 16 feet tall. 17 would be pushing it, but it was possible. Compared to the hulking gunmetal gray brute standing next to him at around 30 feet tall easy, he looked almost out of place in such a large world. It was as if he was a kindergartener playing with the 6th grade kids. Her mind hitched on it for so long that she completely missed Laserbeak's scared snark at the warlord.

The next thing that struck her was how fake that smirk was. It was supposed to look confident, perhaps even overly so. It was supposed to convey a sense of superiority and an air of arrogance. Instead, all Nikki could see was the loneliness that laid just behind it. Not for the first time, she thanked her lucky stars that she had the gift of reading people.

The moment the warlord left the room, the doctor turned to his workstation and sighed, dropping a good part of the confident and arrogant façade. "Alright, let's get this over with," he began. He picked up something that looked like a scalpel. This nearly sent Nikki into a frenzy as she knew firsthand what such a precise tool could do in the hands of an amoral scientist or doctor.

Her unspoken prayer was answered as he decided against it and set it back down. Her heart rate returned to whatever normal yet heightened state it'd been in before he picked up the menacing tool. He then grabbed a small, slender tool with a pointed tip placed between two thick, curved pieces of metal. He pressed a button somewhere on the handle, and an electric charge came from the tip. The bolts of sizzling electricity crackled between the two curved pieces.

Electricity she could handle. Electricity was torture, not experimentation. Not that she was comfortable with her predicament, but it was better than the scalpel. "Okay, here's the drill," he started. "I'm going to ask a question, and you're going to answer it. If you don't, I zap you. Do yourselves a favor and cooperate, and I can make your eventual and inevitable deaths as quick and painless as possible. Understand?" He sounded like he was reciting from a manual. Bored, unemotional, _unthreatening._

"You're not getting anything out of me," Laserbeak growled as threateningly as he could. He glared at the mad medic, hoping to intimidate him into leaving them – or him, at least – alone. Nikki stayed silent, observing carefully everything the red mech did. She let on no hint of her plan, no trace of her feelings. Her face was as impassive as she could get it. If she did it right, she'd look like she was sitting through a lecture. He didn't even look at her.

"You'd better not touch me with that thing," Laserbeak threatened. "I may not be a Decepticon, but I was Soundwave's Minicon long before there was even a Decepticon cause." Okay, that one was a lie; she knew because he'd told her he'd never seen Cybertron that wasn't damaged by war. "Primus help you if you injure me; not even Megatron himself would stop Soundwave from damaging you in every way conceivable." Were she not in the middle of her plan, she'd have given him a look at least, for the 'me' and not 'us.'

The medic sighed, probably dealing with stubborn prisoners all the time. "Whatever," he replied nonchalantly as he approached Nikki. Laserbeak tensed up, worried about what the mad doctor would do to his partner. She decided he'd made up for the earlier slip. She stayed as relaxed as possible - something very hard for her to do, given her current situation.

Ha. Current. Electricity.

She was done hanging around Barton for a couple days.

"Name?" the mech asked, bringing the device close to her arm. _Relaxed, relaxed, relaxed,_ she mentally chanted, forcing her body to comply with the order.

"Nicole Skylar, but my SHIELD codename and superhero alias is Frostbite," she answered without hesitation. She was quite proud with how casual she'd managed to keep her tone and how unstrained her voice was. It was as if she were talking to another agent, or a police officer after some kind of battle. Both mechs' mouths were open, jaws slack with shock. She could work with shock.

The scarlet Decepticon recovered first, and attempted to resume his cold, uncaring demeanor. "Why are you here?"

"I thought we would be able to wipe your system of the stolen info. You know, all the stuff you got from the last SHIELD hack." Professional answer. "Clearly, your boys perform better on their home turf than on ours. I didn't expect a whole lot of problems from the Vehicons. I was wrong." Personal add-on. Both executed perfectly.

"What are you doing?!" Laserbeak hissed, as if the other mech wouldn't hear. "Have you lost it?" If she was convincing him, she was definitely convincing their interrogator. The relaxed stance was a little more authentic in light of Laserbeak's clear believing of her act.

"No. So far, he hasn't asked a single question for which I can't provide an answer without compromising either the Avengers, SHIELD, or the safety of anyone but us," she clarified. "Until he asks a question which I feel could provide info that would be damaging to national and international security, I'm gonna keep answering his questions in whatever way I see fit. Any problems with that?" She gave him another of her 'I'm ending the conversation' looks.

She needed him onboard, because she couldn't keep devoting mental resources to working around any problems Laserbeak might inadvertently raise by saying the wrong thing while under the belief that Nikki had cracked.

Dumbfounded, Laserbeak could only stutter out a stunned "No," before looking at the computer screen, then his restraints, then back to her. His optics rested on the metal beside her head, giving the appearance he was looking at her, when he was, in reality, thinking. The doctor's optic ridges were raised, but he didn't show any other signs of any other emotions. He regained his impassive mask and moved on to the next question.

"What info would be so damaging?" His servo, and the tool which he was holding, was hanging by his side, completely relaxed at this point. In his processor, this was the smoothest interrogation he'd performed in ages, she was sure. Time to flip the tables.

"Weapons schematics. What's your name?" she asked curiously. Maybe it was her tone. Maybe the way she tilted her head slightly, trying to puzzle him out. Maybe it was how she'd been so helpful and compliant. Maybe it was as simple as how fast after her answer she'd asked her question. Whatever the reason, he answered her.

"Knock Out. Why?"

"I wanted to know," she replied. "And before you ask why I wanted to know, I'll answer with simple curiosity."

"You're not afraid of me?" he inquired, placing the tool on the table next to the berth she was strapped to. Good, he was letting his guard down. Now he'd start listening, start asking questions. Start _thinking_.

"Should I be? You haven't tried to hurt me or my partner yet," she countered.

"I've threatened to," he pointed out, glancing between the two. Laserbeak's expression was completely neutral and unreadable, having caught onto her plan. He betrayed no emotion. Nikki, on the other hand, was all innocent curiosity on the surface. She watched as his optics studied her, lingering longest on her eyes. She let him see the gleam in them and relished the almost-squirm that he gave when he undoubtedly realized that she, not he, had just gotten control of the interrogation. She shouldn't have enjoyed it, but she did.

Hey, nobody said she _had_ to be a goody-two shoes just because she was one of the good guys.

"You must not know much about the Decepticons," he changed the subject, reaching for the tool and using it to gesture threateningly at her. "We don't fall for mind games. _Certainly_ not those performed by one so inferior as you." He was playing right into her hands, and he didn't even know it.

"No?" He looked at her, analyzing the strange tone she'd just used. "Because you've already given me so much." He pressed the button on the tool, and the tip crackled with electricity. He brought it closer to her, but she didn't even flinch. Laserbeak, however, was squirming and straining, trying to break himself free as quietly as he could. "Do you want to know?"

"Sure. Enlighten me on what you think you know," he sneered at her.

"You're lonely," she stated simply. The electricity stopped just like that, with the scarlet mech backing off and Laserbeak going still. "You lost someone on the field. A close friend. You're bored with your job, you hate the people you work for, you don't care about the cause. You're trapped somewhere you don't want to be, and you can't leave because you just simply cannot pull off an escape."

" _Stop_ ," Knock Out growled. He didn't turn the tool back on, though.

"You want to get away, but you're scared to try. What if you fail? What if they catch you? You've seen what happens to deserters. I bet you've probably repaired a few by now. You know what they'll do to you. You want to leave, but you can't."

"Shut up." He was more desperate now. "Just shut up." She complied, not realizing she'd been leaning forward until she forced herself to relax one more, resting on the metal with barely a thud. "You don't know anything."

"I know loneliness," she countered. "I know fear." He looked at her, and she read all kinds of emotions in those optics, but no hate for her. Not yet, anyway. "I want to help you, and I know you don't want to let me. I read people. Right now, all I'm reading from you is sadness." A bit of a stretch from the truth, but it was close enough.

"Why do you care?" he snapped. "Why do you give a scrap about some-some sad Decepticon medic mourning the loss of his friend? Nobody with a working processor would. What makes you so different?" He glared at her from 15 feet away from the bed. Laserbeak, optics locked on the conversation, continued to slowly and quietly work his way free.

Her response to Knock Out's bitter questions was to shrug. "I'm just wired that way. I can't help but care. It's gotten me in trouble my fair share of times, yeah, but since it usually ends up being better for everyone, so I just keep doing it. It's gotten me this far, and I'm still alive."

"Well, too bad for you that your streak of goodwill ends here," he replied harshly. The tool snapped to life, and Laserbeak's struggles got louder as he protested vehemently against the scarlet medic hurting her. Nikki herself remained all too calm for his liking. "Any last words?"

"You aren't going to kill me," she answered simply. The tool stopped advancing three feet from her neck. "You can't."

"Nothing's stopping me," he growled. Her face was as impassive as it had been before she'd started questioning him.

"Then do it."

The tool got no closer, the edges still sparking with electricity. They stayed there for a full minute, with him warring against himself, trying to close the small gap and just electrocute her. For that full minute, neither of them moved.

Then his servo began to shake, and the tool with it. The electricity died away, and with a frustrated yell, he launched the thing into the wall opposite her, throwing it like a spear. It was buried almost to the staff portion. He turned around and directed upon her such a burning, hateful glare that to anyone who hadn't seen him unable to hurt her a moment ago, it'd appear that he was about to strangle her with his own hands. "Who _are_ you?" he demanded through clenched teeth.

"I'm just a girl who believes in saving lost causes."

* * *

Knock Out laid on his berth in his quarters, tossing and turning, processor refusing to let the events of the day go.

She bugged him.

She bugged him in the absolute worst way.

 _How_ could a single human girl throw him into utter turmoil?! How?!

 _"You aren't going to kill me."_ She'd spoken with complete confidence that he, the mad doctor, wasn't going to kill her. She didn't even seem to think he was capable of hurting her. And as infuriating as her youngling-like belief was, she was _right_. He hadn't been able to close the measly three foot gap between her neck and the shocker. He hadn't been able to lay a digit on her. No matter how much he wanted to, he just…couldn't.

 _Why_?

 _"I want to help you."_

Primus, it drove him crazy! Why would she, a _human girl_ who'd found herself in the unfortunate position of being on his dissection table – a place the thought of which would make most mechanoids freeze or shiver in fear – care? She was his enemy. She was a goody two-shoes. She fought for the innocent and justice and all the 'hero' slag that the Autobots and seemingly everyone else on this ridiculous planet did. She stood against all that he stood for, yet she _wanted_ to help him? Him. A 'bad guy.'

Who was she, really?

He found himself leaving his quarters before he even realized he wanted to.

The doors to the MedBay opened with a _whoosh_ , and he entered, making no effort to keep quiet. The girl was fast asleep – fast asleep! – on the berth, still tightly secured in place. Her vermin of a pet glared at the new arrival with piercing red optics full of distrust. "Guess some humans really _can_ sleep anywhere," the medic remarked. "Something interesting to study, for future boredom."

No reaction. He'd have to try something much worse. More stinging. "Have the other Minicons been here to see you yet?"

The traitor stiffened up. Bingo. "What do you _want_?" he hissed, voice full of venomous fury.

Truthfully? Knock Out wanted to torture the little brat. The flier was entitled and always had been. He was above consequences, simply because he was Soundwave's 'progeny', and the warlord had a soft spot for the spymaster and his helpers. Laserbeak never needed to worry about being offlined because Megatron blew a gasket. There were other medics should Megatron become displeased enough with his current one that Knock Out was expendable, and besides, the brute ruining his paintjob was terrible enough of a thought to give him nightmares.

Long story short, he resented the bird. He wanted to make him pay.

"Oh, just a friendly chat," he lied. Casually strolling toward the girl, he watched the bird get even more tense. He enjoyed the thought that Laserbrat might break something by winding it too tight for too long. "A strange girl, yes? Most of the _humans_ prefer running away. I'm almost surprised she isn't anywhere near as cowardly." But to have had the hare-brained idea to _break onto the Decepticon warship_ and then actually follow through with the plan, she'd have to be brave at a level nearing stupidity.

"No, you're not," Laserbeak snapped at him.

"No, I'm not," he confirmed. "Though, I am surprised there are any humans out there with the gall to step foot on the most dangerous piece of territory in the entire system."

"If you think she's surprising, get ready for more shocks," the bird retorted, something like hateful pride ringing in his voice.

None of Soundwave's Mini-brats ever _could_ keep their mouths shut when something big was about to happen and they'd helped bring it about.

Knock Out turned on his heel slowly, leveling his gaze on the Minicon.

"Oh, Lasey, you wouldn't happen to know about any…imminent attacks on our warship, would you?" the medic purred dangerously. "I would _hate_ to have to wake my liege up at so late an hour." Yet another bold-faced lie; Megatron barely slept. How the mech stayed functional was a mystery for the ages.

"That depends," the bird parroted – a fitting descriptor – his tone back. "How much would you hate it?"

"Enough that I'd probably send your beloved master in there to tell him the information." More salt in the wound. Laserbeak went back to murderous glares. "But enough about that. What I want to know is what she has planned."

"I sure as _Pit_ am not telling you. I'd rather kiss Unicron's aft." The hate was a tangible thing. Knock Out was enjoying this interrogation session. He went back to floating around the girl. If he kept subtly threatening her by being in proximity to her, Laserbeak would keep talking.

A very small part of him actually wanted to speak with her, as disgusting as that was.

"Very well." He stood on the opposite side of the berth and gently drew his finger across the girl's face. She stirred uneasily in her sleep. A bolt of satisfaction zipped through Knock Out. "But know your lack of cooperation will hurt her, not you." He stepped back and glided around the berth in smooth, easy steps. Laserbeak looked torn between his stubbornness and his want to protect the human. Seriously, what was _with_ this one?

"It'll hurt you, too," the bird replied mysteriously. There was no trace of the angered, threatening glare in his voice. In fact...it was rather similar to the tone the girl had used when she made the claim that the medic wouldn't offline her.

Knock Out stiffened up, and unable to come up with a suitable retort or convincing lie, left the two of them to their own business.

* * *

The next time Nikki saw him, he looked…unsettled. Laserbeak looked downright murderous.

"Planning on being helpful today?" he asked.

"Only if you let me," she replied. His frown got much deeper. He picked over his table of tools, examining each one and settling on none. Nikki watched as he grew more and more frustrated. Laserbeak was strangely silent.

Eventually, the medic growled frustratedly and pressed a button hidden on the underside of the table. He whirled around and gave her the most intense look she'd seen from him before. "If I agreed to assist in you and your pet's escape, what do _I_ get for it?" he demanded. She was slightly taken aback by his sudden change of heart but answered quickly nonetheless.

"Freedom. We'd take you with us, and you could go wherever you wanted. SHIELD can provide you with an Energon signal shield. No-one would know where you were."

"And how long would the turn-around be?"

"Immediate."

He hesitated, but she knew he'd agree. And she was right. The restraints were off in a second, and they were in his alt mode moments later. He sped off through the doors toward some part of the ship Nikki didn't know of yet. They passed several confused groups of Vehicons, and Nikki stayed as low as she possibly could. Knock Out grumbled in a different language the entire time. From the way Laserbeak was looking at him, she guessed it was a dialect of Cybertronian.

When he transformed again, the two Avengers were stowed in some extremely small inner compartment. "Open the 'Bridge. Program coordinates for Upper New York State," the medic growled the order.

"I'll have to clear it with Soundwave-" the hapless Vehicon started.

"Not this one," Knock Out cut him off. There was a beat of silence before he added, "For Breakdown."

So that was who he lost. She'd have to do some research on him.

The distinctive sound of a SpaceBridge whir came a moment later, and after another transformation sequence, Nikki was in the backseat of his alt mode again. He ripped off down the street at high speed, racing toward New York City.

The trip was silent, except for when they crossed the bridge. "If I stayed… _with you_..." He didn't finish the sentence, so Nikki did.

"I'd do what I could to help you."

* * *

He stayed parked in the back of the garage for a week afterwards. Nikki made sure that she did whatever she could down there. She spoke to him, though he never replied, worked beside him without leaning on him, and even gave him a few touch-ups.

Once that week was up, he asked another question, cutting off her long talk about this procedure that he was too bored to bother listening to. "Do you have a team?" She blinked and looked at him.

"No. It takes three people to be a team, and I only have Laserbeak." She looked back at her paper but didn't write anything. "Do you want to join?"

"Does it mean I'd stay?"

"You can stay regardless," she answered casually, as if telling an ex-Energon-shedding madmech that he could stay in a place with highly sensitive information was no big deal. "It's your call." He though t about it for close to an hour before speaking up again.

"And what, exactly, does this job entail?"

Her grin did nothing to alleviate his fears for his paintjob.


	3. Ravage

"Stay close," Nikki ordered in a hushed tone, glancing back at the other two to make sure they were still with her. The three Avengers – one girl, one bird, one mech –moved silently through the MECH compound. The atrocities committed here were still astounding. Dismantled and dead mechs and femmes filled the cells of the compound. Energon and blood stained the floors, but Nikki forced herself not to notice.

If she noticed, she'd freak. If she freaked, she'd shut down. If she shut down, they'd all die.

"Hang on, I've got a live signal on my scanner," Knock Out whispered suddenly. They tensed up, and Nikki let him take the lead, staying on as high an alert as she could. He led them through the twisting, turning, Energon-stained hallways to a cell three corridors over, where the small Cybertronian who was giving off the signal was being held.

It was a cybercat, and he was torn up. His armor plating was scratched and dislocated or missing in places. His paws were torn up, and he was covered in cuts and wounds of various depths. Nikki could see a few spots where the cybercat's Energon was drained off. The Decepticon insignia on his shoulder was pretty much scraped off. There were still a couple tubes hooked up to him, a sign of how close he was to becoming just another victim kept alive by life support for the sole purpose of being a living petri dish.

But the monitor on the left side of the door still showed vitals that varied from those of the others they'd seen. He was in bad shape, but not hopeless.

"I can still save him, but we'll have to move fast," Knock Out said as he pulled his kit out of his subspace. He got to work on repairing the cybercat while Nikki and Laserbeak stood guard. The former was just barely keeping her fear under control, forcing herself not to panic at the fact that they were stationary in a MECH base. Were a swarm of guards to come around the corners from both sides of the hallway, they'd be hemmed in, Silas would have her again, he _promised_ to make it hurt if they got her again-

"No," she whispered to herself, shaking her head free of the thought. Knock Out was a fast worker. He'd have the cat stabilized in no time. They'd be in and out, like they always were.

Laserbeak let out a shaky breath beside her, and she pulls her mind away from her own panic to assess the state of her partner. He was trembling, though only slightly. His optics shuttered as he blinked rapidly, likely doing what she was a moment ago and clearing his processor. "Laser?" she whispered. He looked at her, and she saw his 'battle mask' – a semi-emotionless, ready-to-take-orders facial expression and posture – slip into place. "You okay?" He nodded, but she knew he was lying.

His optics flickered to the cat for just a moment – Knock Out was in the middle of disentangling a few monitoring wires – and she caught on to the Minicon's unintended cue. "You know him?"

"One of my old partners," he answered thickly. "Ravage. He and I worked for Soundwave."

'Worked for Soundwave' meant that he and Ravage were very close. She remembered once seeing him in a state where he was so injured Knock Out had to empty several syringes into the little bird. He never stopped asking for names he was slurring. Ravage had been one of them, now that she thought about it. It hadn't sounded like 'Ravage' at the time, but none of the words he'd said sounded right, so she wasn't surprised she hadn't put two and two together.

She looked down the hall again. No guards, no victims, no nothing. The silence made her twitchy, but she stayed still and resolute, forcing the panic down once more. After Knock Out repaired him as best as he could on-site, he scooped up the cybercat in his servos and they headed back to the Goldenrod. Before she left the compound, though, Nikki marked an X on the wall just inside the door before following the other two, her sign to Silas that she'd been there and had escaped unnoticed.

* * *

Ravage woke up tired, sore, and disoriented. The room was slightly off-center, everything tilted just a bit to the left. He ran an internal diagnostic before stopping short and really examining what he could see of the room through his somewhat hazy vision.

The room he was in was fairly big. There was a large white and gray dresser/cabinet…thing just across from him. There were supplies on top of it, but his vision wasn't good enough yet to identify what they were. There were medical berths on either side of him. The one to his left was small like his, the one to his right was for a regular sized mechanoid. There was an opening in the clearly not permanent walls surrounding the makeshift MedBay that served as the only way in or out. Beyond the walls of the room, he saw expensive cars parked in a neat row.

But none of it was right. Wasn't he in that compound? The MECH one? The room was very much different from the cell where he was held, and he knew that humans that were able to keep him incarcerated wouldn't just leave him in what was clearly a hastily thrown together sad excuse of a MedBay. If he wasn't in MECH, where _was_ he?

His vision slowly improving, he made a move to stand up. His HUD started screaming warnings at him about damaged systems. Ignoring them, he forced himself to his pedes, struggling to stay upright as the waves of pain rolled over him like a tsunami and threatened to take him back into stasis.

That's when he became aware of the IV.

It ran from just below the inside of his elbow on his right front leg to a machine next to the berth. As his optics roved over his frame, he noticed the many patches he had. Most of his armor was brand new and somehow still the same jet-black color it should be. There were parts of his armor that he retained, those few pieces which had come away mostly unscathed from the encounter, but for the most part, it'd all been replaced. The parts were the correct material and fashioned with skillful care.

He'd never seen the Autobots' current base, and thus, never seen their MedBay, but he was _sure_ that this room wasn't it. It wasn't a big enough operation. Ratchet would've been blowing gaskets if he'd had to work in this environment. No, the room he was in was made by a handful of humans, maybe just one, and it was put together with the same skillful care that fashioned his new armor.

"Slow down there," a femme's voice rang through the room. His helm snapped to the source of it – and he ignored another round of warnings and pain – and saw a human female. A teenager around 17, if his memory chip served him right. She was wearing a black t-shirt, jeans, an army green jacket, and sneakers, with her mid-length dirty blonde hair in a ponytail. Who was she? She looked familiar.

Whoever she was, she was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, relaxed and not feeling threatened at all. She probably wasn't in any danger, even if he'd wanted to harm her. It wasn't like he, in his sorry state, could do much of anything right now. He was smart enough to know when he was beaten, and though he had been repaired, he was still very much weakened.

"Who are you?" he asked, inwardly wincing at how raspy his voice sounded. The next time he saw that Primus-forsaken fleshbag Silas, he was gonna rip out his windpipe with his teeth. The thought gave him joy. She uncrossed her arms and walked closer. She projected an aura of authority and was probably all that stood between him and Autobot – or worse, human – justice. 'Justice' most likely meaning 'summary execution'. Ravage fought the urge to shrink back. He couldn't swallow his pride enough to show weakness around any human, least of all a mere youngling.

But she also seemed genuinely concerned and caring. Her eyes betrayed her strange worry over the felinoid as they scanned his frame. He suppressed a growl, knowing she might be a temporary ally if he needed to make an escape. She stopped about three feet from the berth, sensing he was feeling cornered. "Nikki Skylar." His optics shot wide. _This_ was the famous Agent Frostbite? This _child_ was a cunning, battle-hardened fearless warrior? This was the femme who turned back an entire squad of Decepticons? _Her_? "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was taken apart," he replied dryly. She almost cocked an eyebrow, and the corner of her mouth quirked up in a smirk. She seemed amused by his comment. Though he hadn't meant it to be amusing. "Why do _you_ care? Aren't you supposed to hate me?"

She uncrossed her arms, and the amused expression dropped. "Because I want to make sure you're alright. I hate seeing anyone suffer at the hands of that psycho bastard. And no, I don't hate you, supposed to or not. No-one earns my hate right off the bat for no reason at all," she answered. He wanted to like her. He didn't know why, but he wanted to like her. She was gonna have to work for his trust, though. "I'd guess you'd want to know where you are?"

"That would be nice, yes."

"Avengers Tower." His optics widened yet again. "We couldn't take you anywhere else. Knock Out patched you up. You've been out cold for about two days now, plus however long you were unconscious for while you were still a prisoner. Not that you missed much, other than various arguments about the safety of keeping you here," she explained nonchalantly. Apparently, arguing with very important people – because she would not be arguing with a bunch of secretaries over his staying in so secure a place – was as common to her as talking about the weather.

"What danger would I be in here?" he inquired, now attempting to count escape routes and come up with plans. With what few undamaged scanners he had, he swept the room beyond his, and found no signals at all. Were they cloaked? Had they known he'd-

"Not you being _in_ danger, but you being the danger," she tried to clarify, seeing some amount of worry he'd accidently let on in his injured state. When he tilted his helm in confusion, she clarified further. "They're worried you'll steal data and take it back to the 'Cons. I had a heck of a time convincing them you wouldn't. No-one can just look at the bright side of things, _no_ , it's gotta be all doomsday and stabbing-in-the-back, all the time." He had a feeling that last comment was necessarily directed at him. Not that he cared. He had something to work with now.

"How do you know I won't?" he retorted coolly, forcing himself to an upright sitting position and letting his tail curl in front of his paws. It was a bluff, but he wanted to know what she was thinking. Well, it was _probably_ a bluff. He wasn't eager to return to the _Nemesis_ knowing they'd all just left him to rot.

"Because if the 'Cons cared, they'd have rescued you long before we found you," she answered, giving proof to a very dark corner of his processor that he had to shove away for the countless times over the last week. "I doubt you'd be so desperate as to run back to an army and a cause that doesn't value you enough to rescue you. Besides, you're more than welcome to stay here."

"Why? You know I'm an assassin, a thief, and reportedly have no spark," he replied, doing what he considered a good job of masking his shock.

"I bet that's what they said about Laser, too." His spark started to beat rapidly. She couldn't really mean him. "He's now my partner and an Avenger," she continued, somehow not noticing his shift. "It's not like you have anywhere to go, and I know how rough being on your own can be. Whatever your choice, you've got another couple days to think it over. Knock's not gonna let you leave until you're completely healed up. Think about it."

And then she was gone, walking back across the garage to the stairwell leading upstairs. His processor whirled with the possibility – the sheer _possibility_ – that his annoying bird brother was alive. He couldn't leave the room – staying upright was a challenge in of itself, and he didn't even want to see how badly he'd fail at navigating the Tower with all his injuries. Not to mention he couldn't remove the IV.

He tried the only other thing he could: He sent a tentative ping across their family bond. _**Laser?**_

 _ **Oh, good, you're awake,**_ came the immediate reply. Unable to hold back the tidal wave of _love/excitement/relief_ over his brother being alive and well and _in the building_ , he spammed the younger Minicon with a hundred questions, most of them related to "Where have you been?" Laserbeak was all too happy to chat back, explaining everything in a jumbled mess of words and emotions and memories that they both relished in.

Laserbeak had had no-one who he could speak with over the bond – he'd tried to reach them, tried to tell them he was alive, and somehow, they never heard him, never knew, _how could they not know?_ – yet he wasn't out of practice in the slightest. Even whatever mild drugs that were in Ravage's system – he shuddered to think they were painkillers and the pain he felt wasn't just pure pain of its own, but pain beyond that.

It hardly mattered. Laserbeak was alive and talking to him. He was alive and free of MECH.

He was free.

Not that he was in captivity before MECH.

But this was different. He was free to do whatever he wanted, go wherever he wanted, stay wherever he wanted.

 _ **Hey, Laserbeak, what do you know about this…Nikki Skylar?**_

 _ **That she's as stubborn as they come and she's already got the paperwork filled out for you to become an Avenger and join her team. Our team. What do you say, brother?**_

Was that even a question?


	4. Soundwave, Frenzy, and Rumble

It was a quiet, lazy afternoon in Avengers Tower. Nikki was choosing to spend the rare undisturbed free time wrapping a cold compress around her hand. She laid on her bed, looking at the glow-in-the-dark stars plastered to her ceiling when he spoke, taking her off-guard. "Miss Skylar, you have visitors," JARVIS informed. She jerked a little, then sighed in frustration at herself.

"If it's Mearing, she can kiss my aft. If it's Galloway, you can _tell him_ I said he can kiss my aft. If it's Coulson or Fury, you can tell 'em I'm busy," she grumped, staring at the far corner of the room, as if that was where the disembodied voice was coming from.

"Nursing a bruised hand from your last fierce battle with the washing machine?" the AI asked sarcastically. She glared at the ceiling, deciding that was where he was speaking from, or at least figuring that she'd have more effect glaring at that spot. "It's quite the explanation."

"JARVIS, if I need it from you-" She stopped short in the middle or her return snark when the sentence hit her. "Wait, did you say _visitors_? As in multiple?"

"Affirmative. One holoform, two Minicons," he replied. "They aren't on the record as Autobots. I cannot identify their signatures as anything any of the Avengers have encountered before." That really got her attention. She unwrapped the ice pack and jumped out of bed. She dropped the pack on her desk as she jogged out of her room, heading toward the elevator. "Shall I let them into the lobby?"

"Yeah, and tell 'em I'm on my way," Nikki answered quickly. She entered the elevator and slammed the ground floor button. She almost felt bad about it, but then she remembered all the times the button had been kicked, crushed, smacked, punched, and otherwise abused, and her slam didn't seem so bad. She rocked back and forth on her heels, hands clasped behind her back as she waited for the elevator to reach its destination. She stared at the floor counter just above the doors.

She had to force herself to stay slow as the doors opened. She walked out in as orderly a fashion as she could manage, immediately seeing the three Cybertronians sitting on one of the couches.

The two Minicons – twins; one red, one blue – waited and watched the one in holoform – short black hair, brown eyes, and a scar running from his forehead to his ear – stand before standing themselves. Their gazes darted between her and him, nervousness evident in their twitchy movements. The holoform betrayed none of their nervousness if he had any of it. The girl made herself appear as unthreatening and friendly as possible. "Morning," she greeted cheerfully. "I'm Nicole Skylar, but you can call me Nikki. JARVIS said you wanted to see me?"

"Affirmative," the 'man' replied. "I am Soundwave, and these are two of my Minicons, Frenzy and Rumble," he gestured to them as he said their names. Frenzy was red, Rumble was blue. Should be easy enough to remember, long as they didn't try switching paintjobs for pranks. She tried to keep her mind on his words and not the fact that it was _Soundwave_ , head Decepticon spymaster, standing in her lobby.

Of course, the first thing her mind flashed to was that he wanted his other two Minicons back. She'd heard enough stories from the two to know the mech would move heaven and earth to get to them. They were his kids. She understood the sentiment completely. And she knew she wasn't going to deny a father his children. She couldn't.

"I..." he hesitated as he searched for either the right term or the right thing to say, "believe you have two of my Minicons already with you. Laserbeak and Ravage?" Her heart sunk that much lower.

"Yes," Nikki replied, aiming for casual and falling flat as she swallowed the lump in her throat. Soundwave nodded slowly, processing the information or coming up with the next thing to say, she wasn't sure. She forced herself not to fidget, but failed to tame her fingers, which started twisting what of her jeans she could get to. The two Minicons seemed as nervous as she. She finally couldn't take it anymore and blurted out, "Are you here to take them back?" Soundwave seemed surprised by her sudden question, and she wasn't sure if she liked that or not.

"Negative," he answered, much to her – visible – relief. "Given your…unique stance on defectors, I was going to inquire if we may seek asylum here as well." Oh. Well, that was _much_ easier to handle than a custody battle. And it explained why the Minicon twins were so nervous.

"Absolutely," she answered cheerfully. The Minicons were surprised at her reaction, apparently having expected some kind of resistance.

"In that case, may we see Laserbeak and Ravage?" Soundwave asked.

"Of course! Follow me," she instructed as she walked to the door on the right leading to the garage.

Normally, the two were upstairs, a couple floors away from each other at most. Today, however, Knock Out had decided enough was enough and had set up regular check-out days. It was admittedly rather strange to be having a check-up at 3 in the afternoon, but they'd come back from an all-morning mission, and so the doc had gotten a late start.

As soon as the two Minicons with Soundwave saw Laserbeak and Ravage, all four gave ecstatic shouts and bolted toward each other. They were all excitedly talking over each other at such a rapid pace that even Nikki couldn't tell what they were saying. It was a family reunion, and her heart warmed at the sight.

Knock Out, on the other hand, looked far less ecstatic.

"Excuse me for a minute," Nikki said, resisting giving the already-moving spymaster a friendly pat on the arm like she usually would as she walked toward Knock Out. He was in holo, and not wanting to cause a scene, she led him to the stairwell. After she closed the door and they went to the first platform, she turned to speak with him. "What is it?" She hoped nothing was wrong with the other two smaller members of their team.

"You do know who he is, don't you?" Knock Out hissed, as if the 'he' could hear them, even over the chatter of the other four, a good distance across the garage, and through the stairwell's thick door.

"Soundwave, Megatron's TIC and CCO. And the other two are Frenzy and Rumble, his other two Minicons," she answered casually. "Why?"

"Megatron's head spy, and the terror twins of the 'Cons!" he corrected her. "There's no way they're here for a good reason!" She hadn't expected this from him at all, so she had no handle over hiding anything. As such, she watched him become immensely confused and annoyed. What was the problem?

"Yes, there is. He's here because the rest of his family is here, and since he can't bring them back into the Decepticon fold, he's leaving the 'Cons," Nikki replied matter-of-factly. Knock Out didn't need to know she only guessed at the last couple facts. She was good at reading people anyway, and what other motive could he have? "And he has my blessing to stay here." She hoped that would end the conversation.

It didn't.

"Are you nuts?! He's bad news all around! He's here to take back the other two, spy on the Avengers, and take you out!" the medic exclaimed frustratedly, pointing at the door. "You have got get rid of him before he does any damage." Her anger flared, but she managed to keep most of it under control. She couldn't help her bristling, the flash of anger in her eyes, or the hard tone in her voice.

"No, I will not. And you won't either. I _mean_ it." She sighed, forcing herself to relax a little bit to try to take the sympathetic route. "Look, he's a refugee, a stray. Like me. Like Laserbeak. Like _you_ , I might add," she pointed out. "And until he gives me a reason not to, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I'm not going to change my entire MO just because he happens to be one of the highest ranking 'Cons."

"You...naive little...bleeding heart...ice queen!" he shouted. She ignored how much that actually hurt, cocked an eyebrow, and placed a hand on her hip. She'd never actually had to use any of her masks against her team, but she found it amazingly easy. She wasn't sure if she liked that or not.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" she asked, conveying her usual 'Sticks and Stones' attitude. After a momentary stand-off, she gave in. "Look, your concern is noted – I'm not gonna ignore it – but I don't see a reason to throw him out." At Knock Out's incredulous expression, she added "Yet. So chill."

"Fine," he growled before heading back out. Nikki, being Nikki and wanting to cover for Knock Out, followed him in and clapped her hands loudly once, getting everyone's attention.

"Okay, I hate to break up the reunion, but Knock Out just told me that MECH's got a new toy they're rolling off the factory belts that we have to make sure never hits the streets. Laserbeak, Ravage, gear up and get onboard. Soundwave, Frenzy, Rumble, you guys are new here, so you don't have to come if you don't want to." The look Knock Out gave her – a second long flash of 'Liar' – also stung, but only because this time, it wasn't an 'I'm letting you know I know/friendly calling you out on it', it was a sharp remark, a biting retort, a sign that he knew she was lying, and she was lucky he was being nice and not calling her out on it.

The family of five looked at each other, then back to her. "We are coming," Soundwave affirmed. Nikki nodded, then looked to Knock Out. She almost reached out to make sure he was okay, but the look flashed through her mind, and she didn't.

Instead, she just hovered a little closer to him. "That work for you?" she asked in a quiet voice so none of the others would hear.

"For now, I guess so," he answered bitterly.

* * *

"Well..." Nikki sighed as she brushed debris and dust off her arms, "that went well." She looked around at the other Cybertronians with her. Frenzy and Rumble were grinning audio to audio. Ravage shook off some more dust as she walked past her, helm high and optics closed, ignoring her. Knock Out rolled his optics. Laserbeak chuckled. Soundwave stared at her, and if she didn't know better, she'd say he looked stunned.

"That literally could not have gone worse," Ravage corrected as he took a seat on part of a machine that had survived the blast. Nikki, Frenzy, and Rumble, not having a better option for shutting down the factory before one of MECH's super tanks blasted them to pieces, blew the whole place up by overloading the generator. Only Nikki's ice shield had kept her and her team from the same fate.

"It _could_ have gone worse," Soundwave pointed out. Nikki chuckled.

"Yeah, it's just a saying," Laserbeak told him. He then looked back to Nikki. "I promise you he isn't gonna be like this the whole time." He ignored the glare Soundwave shot him. "And Shockwave's worse."

"Yeah!" Frenzy shouted with a laugh. "That cycloptic freak is _so_ literal."

Rumble nodded quickly in agreement, then changed the subject. "That was the most _epic_ explosion I've ever seen! Y'know, aside from the one Energon depot back on Cybertron."

"Don't remind me," Ravage groaned. "I've had enough explosions for one day, and I don't need you two dingbats getting any ideas."

Meanwhile, Knock Out was reflecting on the moments just before the explosion. Soundwave had seen it coming and pushed him out of the way of a bullet. Knock Out reacted instinctually and pulled Soundwave with him. Neither got shot. Neither said anything about it and Knock Out wasn't sure which of them was gonna end up starting the conversation.

"My thanks," Soundwave said, taking him off guard. "For saving me." There was a pause. "You didn't have to."

"Well, you did just save me, and I couldn't let that debt go unpaid," Knock Out replied. Silence reigned between them for a few moments, and the only noise was that of Nikki and the four Minicons chatting. "I wasn't the one who told her about this," he admitted.

"I know," the other mech replied. "You would've just told her." Which meant he knew what actually happened on the staircase. "So..."

"I think it wouldn't matter if we fought for the next two weeks. Nikki would find a way to make it work, and I'm not particularly interested in wasting time and energy on something that I know is gonna fail and won't change anything, so I think we should just bury the hatchet and try to get along," Knock Out said, turning to Soundwave and holding out his hand. "Deal?"

Whether or not Soundwave actually grasped the concept of a handshake or 'Bury the hatchet,' he understood the gist of the explanation and shook Knock Out's hand. "Deal."

"If you two are done with your heart to heart..." Nikki cut in as they finished, "Fury's ticked and wants to yell at us for no reason for a few minutes. We gotta go." Soundwave looked confused and Knock Out just smiled. Normality was relieving.

"I'll explain on the way," he told other mech as they followed Nikki and the rest of the team out of the smoldering remains of the factory.


	5. Marcus

Megatron slowly onlined, and immediately felt something hard digging into his midsection. He forced himself up as quickly as possible, battle systems activating, and toppled over, slamming his helm on something metal. He hissed in pain, then growled and tried to get to his pedes. He gripped whatever it was for support, then looked down at his hands.

His… _human_ …hands…

"What the frag?!" he exclaimed, _not_ panicking. He looked down at himself, and saw not his armor, not his frame, nothing even remotely Cybertronian. No, there was fleshy skin and clothing. He looked like one of those disgusting natives. He was stuck, on that miserable dirtball, and he looked like one of the natives. His soldiers would kill him for sure; who would believe a small, weak human that claimed to be their leader?

But wasn't he already dead? Yes, that miserable whelp of a Prime, Optimus, had finally gotten the ball bearings to just get the job over with. He had buried his axe in the warlord's helm. A part of him had been proud the red-and-blue coward finally found the real guts needed to win the fight. Most of him was angry he hadn't seen it coming. There _was_ a small part – an immensely small part – that was sad he'd driven his own brother to killing him.

He took stock of his surroundings, trying to ascertain where he was. He'd never seen the place before and didn't have even the slightest idea where he might possibly have been. He'd never bothered trying to learn how to navigate there as that was Soundwave's job: Provide coordinates for the attack. He supposed, if he were still Cybertronian, he could just transform to his jet mode and take to the skies. Eventually, he'd find one of the Decepticons and they'd be able to tell him where the base was now.

Enough loathing. He was in a place with trees – a forest, he believed they called it. He was close to one edge of the forest and could see another not too far in the distance. Where he had awoken was along a strip of land that held nothing but grass and rocks. He carefully extracted himself from the object he was in – an American military tank – and climbed to the ground. His legs were unsteady. He braced himself with one hand on the side of the tank.

"Hey, soldier?"

He whirled around, coming face-to-face with a human female. He knew her. Nicole Skylar, that pest of an Avenger personally responsible for the desertion of several good troops, including Soundwave, which had stung more than he'd ever admit aloud. He'd battled her a few times, all of which had ended with her winning, though she'd sustained injuries in every single fight, a feat most of his troops couldn't claim. "You okay?" He blinked in confusion a few times. Was she addressing him?

Yes, she had to have been. There was no-one else around and he was wearing a military uniform. "Um…" He always had something to say. Why would his words fail him now? Oh, yes, he remembered. "I struck my hel-" No, he needed to speak like them. A quick scan of their international public communication system – the internet – provided the word for him. "My head. On the tank." He noticed the damages on it and began to spin together a story. It was a skill he'd not needed to rely on since before the fated Council Meeting when he declared war.

"We were sent to hunt down the," not Cybertronians, "Transformers. My group and I," not group, unit or squad; too late now, "ambushed him, but we were overwhelmed. He attacked us and disabled the tank. I was knocked out when he did. I don't know where my unit is, but I don't think he spared them." A simple lie. It was probably true; there was likely some group of humans that were sent to confront a Cybertronian and had lost their ill-advised battle. How he'd gotten tangled up in all of it was beyond him, and he didn't care.

"Yeah," her voice held a somber note. "I'm betting they didn't know it was Lockdown they were hunting." His spark – heart – started to race. Lockdown was _here_? If the bounty hunter found out about him, he'd simply step on Megatron and end several problems. "Well, we best get moving; Yellowstone is not a place you wanna be after dark. I might like the cold, but even I get chilly here." Ah, so that's where he was.

There was a loud snapping sound, and they both turned to see what had made it. "Uh…" She sounded uncomfortable. No, that wasn't the word. She sounded…stressed. "Listen, we have to go, 'cause that Cybertronian's still around and he may be mad at me."

"Why? What'd you do?" he asked warily as they began to run.

"Eh...taunted him, kicked his aft, taunted him some more, helped his bounties escape, busted his stuff, basically made his life ten times more difficult than it needed to be," she explained nonchalantly. Megatron's eyes went wide. She _messed_ with _Lockdown_?! What human in their right mind would mess with _Lockdown_?!

Then again, she wasn't exactly known for her sound decisions. "Yeah. We gotta go." She grabbed his wrist and dragged him away. He accounted his not immediately wrenching his hand from her grasp as a symptom of the likely concussion he had. His strange want to follow her, wherever she was going, he simply accounted to pure insanity.

* * *

They'd gotten away from him, barely. No, this femme literally could not have cut it closer if she were trying, and a major part of him thought she was. The infuriated bounty hunter was actually close enough to try grabbing the ship's landing gear and he missed by a mere centimeter. A _centimeter_.

Nikki? She laughed. She taunted him again, shouting "Better luck next time, sucker!" with all the amusement in the world. It was as if she thought narrowly avoiding death was just a youngling's game. She was insane, something he pointed out. She simply chuckled and said, "If I wasn't insane, I probably wouldn't have made it this far." He couldn't really question that. "What's your name?"

"What?"

"What's your name?" she repeated, softer this time. He blinked, searching for something he could give her. He'd heard at least a dozen different human names at some point on this pathetic rock; _why_ could he not think of a single one now?

"Marcus," he blurted in a surprise moment of genius. She smiled and nodded, then went back to piloting her starship. Wait…that was it? No follow-ups on his very obviously fake name and suspicious hesitation? Nothing?

"Look, I get it. I'm a crazy girl, you're a CIA hired gun on a mission that went south faster than Gallipoli. I don't blame you." He said nothing to refute her incorrect assumption. "Where should I drop you?" she asked, and his processor stalled out for a moment. Where could he hide? _Could_ he hide? If so, for how long? And he was sure he had been offlined; what happened to bring him back? "Marcus?"

"I don't know," he replied. He wasn't even aware the words slipped, and upon seeing her confused look, he tried to stammer out another set of convincing lies. "My family is gone, all my friends were in that unit, the military has been my home for so long I don't have a house, and I'm not sure I want to go back." The lies left his tongue tingling. The words felt so foreign to him. 'House,' 'friends,' 'family.' He hadn't had anything like that in so long he felt uncomfortable lying about it.

But he realized there _was_ a bit of truth to it. His only living familial relation was Optimus, who'd sent him to the AllSpark and would do so again if he saw him. Soundwave, his closest friend, had been driven away by his insanity, straight into the arms of this femme, and no-one else could claim that unique position of friend. Starscream led the Decepticons, and if Megatron tried to reclaim his title, it'd be an uphill battle the whole way. This was a war, so he was a warrior – technically a warlord – and warrior was just another word for soldier, right? So it was something like the military.

The strange, final realization hit him like – not to put too fine a point on it, and ignoring the cliché – a truck:

He did not want to restart the War. He was, for some reason, content with losing.

What. The. Frag.

Something had to be seriously wrong with his processor. _Why_ did he not want to continue the cause he started so many orns ago? He was the rightful leader of a noble cause, and the Autobots…

 _No._

Frag the War. He'd died, come back, killed his own brother, died again, and now he'd been given a clean slate. He'd been ousted from his position, alienated everyone he cared about, isolated himself from the world, and he had a second chance. He could get away for good, _forever_ , and if he didn't take that chance, then he was no smarter than those humans he derided on a constant basis.

Nikki didn't ask any questions through his silence, and he gave no words to explain what he was thinking. "I could take you to the Tower," she offered. "You can stay there for as long as you need to get everything all worked out." He nodded, pretty much on autopilot, as he thought about what might happen to him going forward.

They landed at Avengers Tower a while later – he wasn't even paying attention anymore – and Nikki told him he could 'Take as long as he needed' before leaving the landed ship, with him on it. The idea to simply take it flashed through his processor but was quickly shut down when he realized he had nowhere to go and no idea how to fly it.

He just couldn't puzzle it out. She found a stranger, knew he was lying to her, took him with her, offered him a place to stay, and just implicitly trusted him with her ship? That was unwise. _Like many of her decisions,_ he mused. She had no reservations, though, so maybe it was locked or protected or something. He didn't know and literally could not care less.

He thought for a bit about what he was going to do, and after coming up with nothing more than 'Wait here and take advantage of her hospitality until you get half a clue,' he decided to focus on the missing memories that explained how he was alive, and more importantly, why.

He went over everything that had happened, from his assisting Optimus in his fight against Sentinel Prime, to waking up in sprawled over a tank. It took better than a joor to figure it out, but he accessed the blocked off area of his memory.

 _He was floating in some kind of bright void. No, the bright light was in front of him, not surrounding him. It enveloped him, though he couldn't turn around and see where it ended or if there was anything behind him. There was a woman, a human with a white dress – tinted blue by the bright light – and blonde hair. She floated between him and the source of the light. "Who are you?" he demanded harshly._

 _"My name is of no importance to you at this time, Megatron," she deflected in a melodious tone. How did she know his designation? No, that hardly mattered; he was offline. Perhaps she was some kind of guardian. But why would a fleshling be a keeper of the AllSpark?_

 _"How am I here?" he asked, looking around and seeing nothing. No buildings, no bodies, nothing. "And where am I?"_

 _"You are here because I have brought you here," she answered. "I have an assignment for you."_

 _"I take orders from no-one," he growled. Her neutral expression shifted to something less pleasant. Not that he cared; he was dead, what could she do to him? "Now release me."_

 _"No," she refused. "I am not here at your discretion; you are here at mine. I am giving you a second chance at life. Do not take my words lightly." He stiffened up. If he played nice, perhaps he could slip away and return to the Decepticon fold. "I know what you're thinking, Megatronus," she used his first name. "You are still blinded by your ego and pride. For you, the War has become about being right. Neither side is exempt from what has happened, but you have fallen furthest of everyone involved in this War. Feel you no shame?"_

 _She must have been inside his processor, because the images of what he'd done, of what he'd ordered done, flashed in front of his optics. Millions offlined, by his orders. Cities steeped in Energon he commanded to be spilt. Frames, broken and twisted, littered every image he saw, and for the first time in a long time, he did feel some measure of shame._

 _"It was for the cause," he replied. He was aiming for confidence, growled viciously through gritted denta. He was hoping for imposing. It came out so much smaller and flatter than he'd spoken in orns. He hadn't spoken that way since…well, since he and Optimus were sparklings. "It was all for the cause."_

 _"No," she corrected, her voice a whisper in his audio. "It wasn't. It was pride and pain." He looked away out of shame, yet another thing he hadn't done since before the War. She continued on nonetheless. "You waged war across the stars, killing your opponents, your allies, and countless innocents. All over pride." The scene changed once more. Now he was in an alley, and there were two sparklings there._

 _Now there was shame and sadness. She really knew how to manipulate a mech._

 _"You were thrust out of your innocence a long time ago. You were given hardly any chance to be a sparkling. You did, however, take care of your brother." Yes, that was him standing there, taking care of Optimus. That was Optimus – Orion Pax – standing there, taking for granted what his brother was willing to do for him._ Why _could the younger mech not just keep his mouth shut?_

 _"And the ungrateful brat stabbed me in the back," Megatron spat. "So much for looking out for each other."_

 _"The Matrix and title were never promised to you. Sometimes, it is the younger who are more fit for the role of leader," she explained. The scene changed to that of the council chamber on Cybertron. "In your anger, you aimed for the one who you had been protecting all your life. In your rage, you accidently killed an innocent, the first innocent of the War. In your stubborn pride, you refused to back down, and trillions have died since." He took a shuddering breath._

 _"But you_ do _feel shame," she said, once again knowing his thoughts. "This is why I choose you. The assignment I have will test you in every way you can think of, and in some ways you will not know until you face them. Do you accept?"_

 _"I do," he replied, deciding he'd likely end up back there soon._

 _A bright flash of light, a searing pain, and the world went dark. He_ _slowly onlined, and immediately felt something hard digging into his midsection._

So that was what happened. How did she trigger such an emotion? How long had he laid dormant, dead, before _she_ arrived? Who _was_ she? These were questions for later, but right now, he had another one to answer:

Why was he human? And why had Skylar been the one to find him? Was she the 'assignment'? How was he supposed to know?

He sat up, then saw a knife. He had to be sure. Grabbing it, he sliced part of his forearm and was relieved to see blue instead of red. Energon, not blood. A holoform, not him actually being human. He'd never used a holoform before. "Nothing like learning on the job," he mused, face twisting as he remembered where he heard that phrase first. "Well, she found me for a reason," he said to no-one, "so I guess I should try to make ago of this."

He strode off the ship and got ready to do the hardest thing he'd ever tried to do: Be a good guy.


	6. Ripclaw

One would think that, having been through the hell that was a MECH laboratory facility, Nikki wouldn't go anywhere near the places again. Then again, one would also have thought she'd end up a villain, what with her tragic backstory. People were wrong all the time. It was nothing new.

Neither was the mission. They'd located a MECH lab, and the normal procedure applied. Break in, leave about half the team to free everyone who was still alive, take the other half of the team and distract the MECH forces while trashing the place. And, in Nikki's and Ravage's cases, not have a panic attack. It usually went really well, and it had on this mission as well.

Until Silas had dropped a security door Nikki didn't recall ever seeing before – and, given that she was the building layout expert (thanks to no less than a dozen failed escape attempts during her week-long captivity in MECH), this was a bad thing – that cut off Nikki's access to her team. "Keep going!" she ordered. "I'll find a different way around!"

If her layouts were correct, there were two other routes she could take to get around the unexpected block. But that was an 'if' now, and she wasn't feeling very confident about it. After all, the last time she'd been alone in a MECH compound, _bad_ things had happened.

What was even more worrying was the fact that the advance/distraction/wrecking team just lost their navigator. Did she trust them? Yes. Did she think they could handle themselves? Absolutely. Was she worried as all get-out? Oh, heck yes.

She shook her head and soldiered on, passing rows upon rows of empty cells. She shot anything that moved and looked human-sized and dull green. Considering it was unlikely for anything to escape the lab, and even more unlikely that it'd be human-sized, she wasn't overly concerned about hitting something she didn't want to shoot.

She slipped around one corner, steadying her breath and shooting two guards. Kill shots, both of them, and the MECH soldiers went down with a pair of matching _thuds_. A clank from the cell to her left sent the girl scampering for cover in one of the empty cells. She wasn't proud of the yelp she gave. Her white-knuckle grip on her gun relaxed when she heard a second clank. Chains.

She peeked around the cell wall and looked at something she'd never seen before. This Cybertronian was as tall as Megatron had been. Maybe a little taller than him. The femme's heavy armor was a shape and design Nikki had never seen before. She noted that the blue-green went well with the silver, and that the femme's yellow eyes were sharp, alert, and locked on the girl.

"That's not a MECH gun," said the femme, voice just a little scratchy. She must not have been down there for long.

"No, it's not," Nikki replied. "My name's Nikki Skylar. I'm an Avenger; I'm here to help." Giving the hallway one more nervous check, Nikki slung the gun over her shoulder and began to hack through MECH's protocols to release the Cybertronian.

It didn't take more than a minute before the last of the chains and tubes were removed. "Thank you," the femme spoke. "My name is Ripclaw. I am a Predacon, and I am in your debt for saving my live, Nikki Skylar."

"Don't mention it," Nikki replied casually. "My please. Now, let's get the heck outta here before they find us." The Predacon nodded and followed the girl as Nikki followed her mental map. Having someone behind her – someone large, who Nikki could keep within her field of awareness at all times – actually helped calm the young Phoenix.

"Nik!"

The shout startled her, but the voice was familiar. While she did jump, when she turned, she didn't raise her weapon. Ripclaw went on alert, armor flaring as her battle systems – or, what was _left_ of them; no Cybertronian down here ever had any system functioning at 100% – kicked into high gear. But Nikki only slung her gun over her shoulder and embraced the new arrivals: Four Minicons.

"Oh, thank Primus you're okay!" Laserbeak sighed, relieved.

"You _are_ okay, right?" Ravage asked, looking her over to make sure she wasn't injured.

"If you aren't, we can totally take out the guy or guys that hurt you," Frenzy said.

Rumble nodded eagerly and added, "That goes double if it was Silas."

The strange chorus of all four speaking over each other was comforting to Nikki. It was normal, and she needed normal. She didn't need to see Ripclaw to sense the confusion flickering across the Predacon's field. The femme took a step back, uncertain.

"I'm fine. Really," she insisted. Ravage gave her another look over, letting his optics pass over her, cataloging everything different from the last time he'd seen her. He was satisfied enough when he found nothing out of the ordinary, and he took a half-step back. He didn't sit, though. It was far too dangerous a place to let one's guard down. "And if I see Silas, you can be sure I'll handle that SOB all by myself."

"Sure!" Laserbeak murmured, unconvinced. Nikki laughed and shook her head. "Soundwave, Knock Out, and Marcus are still MIA, but I haven't heard any chatter concerning their location, so they may still be uncaptured. Either that, or Silas is being uncharacteristically quiet about it."

"Is 'uncaptured' even a word?" Ravage asked skeptically.

"Shut up," Laserbeak retorted.

"We should keep moving," Ripclaw pointed out. It was now that the other four seemed to notice her. The twins tilted their helms in perfect timing, the cybercat narrowed his optics at the femme, and Laserbeak only hovered over to Nikki's right side at the girl turned back to the Predacon. Nikki could see her fighting the urge to attack. "This is no place to linger."

"Who are you?" Frenzy asked.

"Ripclaw," she answered shortly. "Who are you?"

"They're my teammates," Nikki answered. "Laserbeak, Ravage, Frenzy, and Rumble." She named each as she pointed to them. "We all came here together, with the other three members whose names you heard earlier, to break out anyone MECH had here, like you."

The femme nodded. "Perhaps now would be an advantageous time to escape."

"Quite right," Nikki agreed. She took her gun off her shoulder and smirked. "Let's go."

* * *

The team was thorough. They shot down every MECH soldier, scientist, and guard without remorse or hesitation. It gave Ripclaw a rather dark sense of pleasure. The little humans deserved it, for everything they'd done to her. The team swept every cell there. There was no-one but her. She stayed silent the whole time, only answering when she felt they needed to know certain pieces of information. None of them pressed for anything further.

She found it interesting to note that the only member of Skylar's team that wasn't a Decepticon was Marcus, but she knew something wasn't right about the man. He didn't have an EM field, but the femme could _swear_ he was Cybertronian. She had no evidence to prove this, and it wasn't her team, so she said nothing, leaving the matter be.

The third interesting thing to note – as the fact that a young human girl had somehow accrued the loyalties of top Decepticons easily slipped in as the second point of interest – was that Skylar was completely fine with offering a complete stranger a ride back to 'Avengers Tower,' the team's base of operations. While she didn't push Ripclaw to accept, she seemed fairly confident the femme would.

Which, of course, she did. She spent the whole flight in silence, listening to and watching the others. She allowed their medic, Knock Out, to examine her, and found he was far less narcissistic and vain than she'd been led to believe by the reports she'd heard from other Vehicons during her short time as 'Subject 004'. But then, she noticed that most of the group was far more kind – or at least less vicious – than the reports said. It was most likely because of the human.

She was still most intrigued by Marcus. If he noticed her staring at him, he didn't mention it. It wasn't until better than halfway through the flight that he said something that allowed her to identify him.

"It certainly wouldn't be the _first_ time Silas underestimated the stubbornness of the Decepticon commander."

Something that might've been innocuous. It might not mean anything at all. But her processor decided that it meant that 'Marcus' was actually 'Megatron,' in human holoform. And so, for the rest of the trip, she tried to convince herself she was wrong. She couldn't. Too many things about his personality fit too well. As strange as it was to see the warlord that way – smiling, joking, protective but not possessive, _kind_ – she knew there was no-one else it could be.

Only once they'd landed and Knock Out had declared that she was mostly alright and only time would heal her was she allowed to pick a holoform. Her choice was a 6'3" human female with a British accent, long blonde hair, a white t-shirt, jeans, combat boots with heels (Like, high heels. Skylar looked beyond astounded that anyone even thought to combine the two forms of shoe. She said she thought it was 'nuts,' whatever that meant), and a blue green jacket that matched her armor color. She would blend in perfectly with the world, save her height, which she refused to change.

The problem was where in the world she would go.

There were other Predacons. She might try to find them, but how would she go about that? Simply putting out a distress signal could draw anyone in, and there was no guarantee that the other Predacons – if they came for her – would get to her before someone like MECH did. As small as the Decepticons said the planet was, it was actually rather big for one lone femme trying to find just one other Predacon.

She could just fade into the background. Pretend she really was human. Learn what they do and then practice their mundane lives, with their jobs, houses, vacations, and everything that they did every day. But could she really pretend that? She was a Predacon; a warrior, destined for greatness. She would never be satisfied with anything remotely boring.

"You look lost," Marcus remarked. She jumped and swung at him, her battle systems taking over before her rationality could. To her surprise – and further confirming her hypothesis – he caught the punch. And then he smirked. "Sorry."

"The fault is mine," she replied. She wasn't sure who programmed her formal speech patterns, but she didn't like them much. "Do you require something?"

"No," he answered. She nodded, then took a step back, turning her back to him. Perhaps not an intelligent idea, but she did it anyway. She examined the garage. There were so many fancy and expensive cars there, but there were more common cars mixed in among them. There were rolling tool-shelves and various mechanical parts scattered about. Some of them, she was sure, had nothing to do with cars in the slightest. She slowly began to walk through the wide space, and was slightly annoyed when 'Marcus' followed her.

She made it about halfway across the huge space before her irritation finally surfaced. "Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked, whirling around. "Otherwise, I must ask you-"

Skylar had appeared beside him. The femme-in-holo blinked, immensely confused. She hadn't even heard the girl walk up. "How did you do that?"

"I'm quiet," she answered, smiling as she crossed her servos- no, wait, humans didn't call them servos. They called them…what was it…? "Marcus is right; you look kinda lost. Anything we can do to help?"

"Unless you can locate my kin, negative," Ripclaw replied as formally as she could manage. There was a twinge of understanding in the human's eyes, but it cleared and there was a spark of something Ripclaw couldn't name there.

"We'll get to work on it post haste. In the meantime, you're welcome to stay here." The Predacon scoffed.

"You really think they would have me here?" She looked at the ceiling, as if finding the building's owners through the many floors. "I doubt it."

"They would. You'd be surprised; most of us here know firsthand what it's like to not have a place to go while you sort yourself out. Besides, I could shut the whole place down for as long as I wanted if they said no," the human explained.

"Rejection is but one reason I could not stay here; I have many." She didn't, not really. She also didn't understand why she was fighting it so much. Perhaps because she thought that to stay would be to turn her back on her kin, and her loyalty laid with them…wherever they were.

"Try me."

"What?"

"Try me. Why else can't you stay?"

"I have quite the temper. I have been known to destroy buildings in my rage," Ripclaw replied, puffing up in order to be imposing. But despite the 11 inches she had on the girl, Skylar was not intimidated.

"Wrecking buildings is a past-time for about half of the Avengers. We have a whole holodeck program devoted specifically to wrecking buildings. It's very therapeutic."

"I know nothing of your customs."

"Neither did most of my team. That's a small hurdle, and a fun one to jump over, lemme tell you."

"Wait 'till Christmas," 'Marcus' chimed in.

"How do any of you know if you're safe with me? I could be lying." While she was no master of on-the-spot reasoning, she had been doing fairly well. But this was her last decent excuse, and Skylar didn't look like she was going to take this one.

"Hon, you have _no_ idea how many of us could be lying and dangerous. We have _multiple_ assassins and spies. No-one tops Natasha Romanoff."

"I'm not…particularly useful with anything outside combat." Valid, but weak.

"Everyone can learn. Plus, you need somewhere to stay, and we're always looking for more members." So she wasn't just offering Ripclaw a room, but also a job. A team.

A family.

Could she really accept? If she became more attached to them than to the Predacons – to her _kin_ – and there was a conflict of interest, how could she possibly handle that? Who would she side with? And no matter the outcome of that decision, there would be someone who felt betrayed, and thus, she would be betraying a part of herself.

"Ripclaw." She looked back at her. There was a soft, understanding look in her eyes. This girl knew exactly what Ripclaw was thinking. That thought wasn't as unnerving as it should've been. "No matter what happens, you'll have somewhere to stay here, whether or not you find them."

Not that finding them was any sort of guarantee. It was a choice between something real, in the here and now, promised by the girl who rescued her – to whom, it could be argued, she was honor-bound – and something that _might_ happen sometime in the future that seemed so far off. It was an easy choice.

"I will accept your invitation to stay, Nikki Skylar. Thank you." Skylar grinned.

"Nikki!" whined one of the twins. She sighed and offered the femme and her teammate one last smile before turning and jogging back across the garage. That left Ripclaw alone with 'Marcus.'

"I know," she said, on a sudden whim. The man didn't show any sign of surprise. "Who you really are…gladiator."

He only nodded slowly. But he didn't walk away. "I'm watching you, Marcus," she said, and was surprised to find it came as a warning tone. "If anything happens, I will expose you."

"That's fair," he answered. "I only ask that, short of my doing something or something terrible happening that requires the revealing of this information, you not tell anyone." She found herself nodding, because she believed – really believed – that he wasn't going to try anything.

She watched him walk back across the garage, and she wondered what she'd just signed up for.


	7. Megatron

He honestly didn't mean for it to happen. Then again, people who run from their pasts don't ever mean for their pasts to come back.

'Marcus' was the sniper. He was up and out of the way of the direct fighting. It had been a clever lie from when he'd first met Nikki, and while he'd always been a good shot, he had never been, by any means, anything close to the crack shot needed to be a sniper. As such, he'd spent hours in one of the holodecks on the lower levels, away from everyone else, as he practiced shooting at increasing distances, honing his skill. It had taken close to a month for him to get good enough to actually back up his sniper claim.

The _only_ reason he'd pulled it off was because Cybertronians learned skills faster than humans (when they really applied themselves to it), he was a fast learner even among other Cybertronians (growing up on the streets while caring for his sparkling brother had made him that way), and the Tower's AI caretaker, JARVIS, had known who he was and assisted him with his learning.

None of the team seemed to guess who he was – outside being a Cybertronian, as they'd all made allusions to it at some point or another – or that he'd never actually been a sniper. As far as he could tell they figured, he was a Neutral or low-level Decepticon who was trying to escape his past. He never bothered to correct them. He just picked up his rifle and shot what he was told to shoot.

He did end up on the team, after it was all over, and Ripclaw had somehow figured out who he was, once she'd shown up. But he'd kept his part of the agreement to do nothing terrible enough to require the revealing of his true identity, and she'd not said anything to anyone – aside from maybe JARVIS.

The really beautiful part about his arrangement – a part that not even he, with all his tactical planning and four-steps-ahead mentality – was that he was never in hand-to-hand combat with any of his former troops. None of them had a chance to identify him, and as such, his secret stayed safe. He did feel responsible, on some level, for their being there, so his shots were more disabling than fatal, if he could help it.

The downside to his position was that, should anyone ever get wise to his presence, they could ambush him, and he'd be alone. It didn't happen often, and up till now, every time it happened was with MECH. He could handle a few humans

Up till now.

Now, he was a liar, and a darn good one at that. He lied his way onto the team, lied his way through everyday life, lied and lied and lied, mostly to live. But there were some things you just couldn't lie your way out of, and facing off with a brute of a 'Con would definitely be in that category. He had to either leave or fight. Neither option worked.

The third option was to call for back-up – which he still hated doing, but it was necessary to maintain his cover – whilst shooting every vulnerable part he could. True to style, Nikki appeared to hammer every part of the unfortunate 'Con that she could get at, giving the hapless attacker a chance to flee. Unsurprisingly, he bolted. Megatron nodded his thanks to the girl, who smiled and dashed back into the think of the fight.

When he peered through his scope again, he saw Starscream staring right at him. And he had _the look_.

Now, for all the Seeker's shortcomings and faults, he was still fairly intelligent and cunning. He hadn't gotten to where he was without being craftier than a snake. His specialty was finding exactly what one didn't want him to know and exploiting it. It was one of the things that had drawn Megatron to thinking he would be a good SIC. He only found out later that having someone like that working as your SIC _might_ not be the _best_ idea.

In his defense, he was certifiably insane back then. Probably still a bit now. Seriously, look at his job.

Starscream watched the sniper for a long moment. Then he smiled, and Megatron knew he was screwed. Starscream didn't need to beat him – it was doubtful the Seeker could, as skilled as he was in combat – he only needed to expose him. It wouldn't be hard to do, if he gave Megatron the right incentive.

Say, kidnapping Nikki.

It wasn't hard to snatch her. Starscream was characteristically known as a coward, and the _last_ place he should be going is straight at the girl who could take him from one piece into a dozen within the span of a minute. Nikki was distracted by taking down every Decepticon and drone that went at her. She and Laserbeak were covering for each other, earning their title of 'Lightning Team'. But there was only so much they could do at any given moment, and Starscream was going at just the right speed to get in and scoop Nikki up before transforming and jetting off away from the battle.

The comms exploded in an instant.

Soundwave was trying to track her comm, but he was in the middle of his own fight and couldn't transform. Laserbeak certainly wasn't fast enough to catch up to the silver jet. And Ripclaw wasn't even _there_ , as she'd been hit badly in the team's last fight and had stayed home.

Long story short, he was the only one who had a chance of getting her back. Retrieving his friend from his former SIC? It wasn't even a question. He dropped the rifle, took off running, and transformed mid-stride. The entire battlefield shut right up. Seeing a supposedly dead warlord tends to shut down the whole room very fast.

On his next stride, he transformed into his jet mode and took off at top speed. It'd been too long since he flew; there wasn't a single thing that was working as he remembered it. He was slower than he should've been, couldn't handle or steer nearly was well as he used to be able to, and his nav system was on the fritz. It was a little frustrating, to say the least.

But he was still, on a fundamental, working-parts level, faster than Starscream, and it wasn't long before he got the Seeker in his sights. Nikki had to have been in the cockpit, which made retrieving her extremely difficult. He couldn't just shoot the jet down without hurting her, but he couldn't figure out how to get her out of there.

That's when Starscream took a sharp dive to the right. Megatron followed, much more smoothly. The longer he flew, the better he got, so it wasn't hard to copy the F-22's movement. Starscream then jerked to the right, and Megatron had to slow down and pull back to avoid getting hit. As it was, the tip of the Seeker's wing scraped against his. "Starscream, what _are_ you doing?" he murmured.

When the Seeker finally managed to straighten out, he realized it wasn't _Starscream_ flying. It was Nikki. Sort of.

She'd apparently decided enough was enough and was making the Seeker's life miserable. Glancing through the glass, he saw her slamming her elbow into the side of the cockpit and kicking the controls. Mostly, though, she was yanking the steering controls left and right, as if trying to tear them out of the jet. Megatron almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

After all, the idiot had captured her. He was now suffering the consequences.

The jet shot forward, radiating frustration. She was thrown back in her seat, but if Starscream thought that was going to stop her, he was in for a shock. Megatron had to double time it to catch up. There was about 15 more minutes of the chase, and it fast descended into ridiculousness. Starscream could barely keep a constant speed, altitude, or direction. Megatron had no clue what she must've been doing to the Seeker.

The chase finally ended when Starscream decided he'd had enough and ejected Nikki from the cockpit. She flew high in the sky, and Megatron, in a burst of crazy idea that he wasn't sure was his, he positioned himself directly beneath her, opening the top to his own cockpit – his alien-looking alt. mode was from an organic planet, ironically enough. She landed almost gracefully, and once she was secure inside, he closed the top and peeled off. Starscream must've been ecstatic to see them go.

"That was fun," Nikki remarked casually. Megatron only scoffed in amusement. "You okay?" A little unexpected, but he could guess she'd finally put two and two together and connected Megatron with Marcus.

"Affirmative," he answered. She huffed. She seemed very amused about the whole thing, which he supposed was a good thing.

"You can drop the formalities; I'm not gonna execute you or anything."

"…it's not _you_ I'm worried about," he admitted quietly.

"They're a lot more forgiving than you're thinking they'll be," she assured him. He couldn't make himself believe her this time. She reached over and turned on the comm, and the team's voices filled the small space.

"Does _anyone_ have anything on either of them?" Laserbeak asked.

"I think I have two signals, one heading south-southeast, the other headed directly for us," Ravage answered tensely. "I can't differentiate between the two." Megatron found it strange that Rumble wasn't speaking up; out of the small family of Minicons Soundwave had gathered to him, Rumble had always been best with signal differentiation. And it certainly wasn't like either of the twins were ever quiet.

"Starscream is the one headed away from us, and I'm not reading Nikki's signal with him," Soundwave clarified. The ex-warlord paused for a moment before remembering his cockpit was shielded; no signals that weren't his got in or out. Soundwave had no idea where Nikki was. Nor, for that matter, did the rest of the team. Maybe there was a way to fix that, when they got home.

If they let him go back home.

"Well, somebody get him on the comms and find out if they're alright!" Knock Out shouted. Nikki smirked and took this as her cue to jump in.

"This is Golden Eagle on the line, telling everyone to _shut up for a second_ , cause it's so loud I can't hear myself think," Nikki chimed in. Megatron chuckled again, and among the obviously relieved gasps and sighs, he heard one quiet voice, dripping with sarcasm, speak up.

"You actually _think_?"

"Shut up, Ravage," Nikki replied, but she was laughing too hard for it to be taken seriously. "We're both fine. Starscream, on the other hand..."

"What'd you do?" the twins demanded excitedly at the same time.

"Kicked the daylights out of his cockpit," Megatron answered. The twins started whooping and laughing. "I almost felt sorry for him."

"Hey, he asked for it," Nikki defended herself.

"That he did," Laserbeak agreed.

"Why am I not surprised?" Soundwave remarked, more to himself than anyone else.

* * *

He'd been practicing for it.

He wasn't naïve; he knew that his grand plan would eventually break. He'd had every apology, every word, every explanation – not excuse; there was none – planned out to the syllable, and he'd recited them exactly as he'd practiced them. It wasn't like reading from a speech, though. It was like back before the War, when he was an outspoken gladiator championing the freedom of all Cybertronians, not just those who were high-caste and 'deserved to live.' It was passioned, spark-felt, honest, and gut-wrenchingly true.

And at the end of it, he found he would be satisfied with whatever happened, because Nikki had nodded in approval. She was with him, and for some reason, that made it all worth it.

"We'll adjourn to discuss this development," she'd replied at the end of his apology-speech. "For the moment…" She stopped, thinking. "Head back to your room and wait for us." He nodded, then turned and walked out. Ripclaw gave him a very knowing look as he left. He wasn't able to return much of anything. He walked upstairs and waited.

* * *

She had no clue how to handle it.

Not a single slagging clue.

She turned around to face her team, even though she didn't want to. But she'd promised herself, after Aruba, that she was going to be _honest_ with them. "So…" she started. "What do we think?"

No-one answered. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad. While she could normally read them – like they could read her – she couldn't this time, and she wasn't sure if it was because they were being unreadable, they hadn't decided, or she was just in such emotional turmoil that she couldn't get past her own mind to reach out and try to understand theirs.

Laserbeak spoke first, voice somber and quiet, but with the iron undertone that only came with decisions he was sure of. "I vote he stays."

"It's _Megatron_ ," Knock Out said. He was at least trying to put up a fight, but it was clear to everyone that he wasn't really fighting. He hadn't fought. Not after Nikki said Soundwave and the twins were to stay. He'd learned to trust Nikki's judgement. "He can't stay."

But was the 'can't' because he didn't want Megatron to stay, or because no-one would ever let him?

"He doesn't have anywhere to go," Laserbeak argued. "And he wants to stay; we all know it."

"Ripclaw, you knew," Ravage remarked. She nodded.

"I don't know how I knew. I just did," she confirmed. The cybercat nodded.

"None of us want him to leave," Laserbeak said.

"Laserbeak…" Soundwave sounded…defeated. The whole team actually _looked_ defeated, now that Nikki thought about it.

"What? I'm right!" he argued fiercely. Even Nikki was surprised. "And we all know it! He might be Megatron, he might've done things, and it's not like we don't all know what he's capable of at his worst."

He glanced at Nikki, and she gave him a warm, proud, 'Go for it' gaze. He then turned back to the team. "But this is the team for people like him. No-one else would've given _us_ a chance. No-one else would've taken _us_ in. And he's proven he's willing to play by _our_ rules to stay here. He's got nowhere else to go, no-one else to turn to. We're all he has left. And look what this team did for us! We all remember who we used to be. We all made names for ourselves, and they weren't good names. But Nikki gave me a chance. And I gave Knock Out a chance. And he gave Soundwave and Frenzy and Rumble and Ravage a chance. Look where we are now! We'd never have gotten here on our own. He at least deserves that chance, as _himself_."

Nikki smiled brightly at her SIC. No-one needed to ask if she was proud of him to know she was.

And, after a long few minutes of contemplative silence, Soundwave stepped up. "Seconded. I vote he stays."

"As do I," Ripclaw added. One by one, the entire team agreed to give him a chance.

The next morning, when Megatron was called back to the garage – which had become the unofficial meeting place for the Strike Team – they presented him with his own badge, one with his name engraved on it. "You're one of us," Nikki had said.

And, finally, he was.


	8. Buzzsaw

**A/N: HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT, YOU GUYS**

 **I finally got an Ao3 account! Wee! Oh, man, I'm so excited about it! I've been wanting one for months now, and I've finally got it!**

 **This is gonna mean some minor changes, but they won't be too terrible. The first one is that due to this - and some other family things - the story I promised isn't finished yet. AND, given the fact that I've slipped into the hybrid-fandom-of-my-own-making of The Hobbit and HTTYD, that means that story is...unlikely to get finished for a little while. BUT! I have another one I speed-wrote and need to polish up. I'll be posting that sometime this week. AND! For the first time ever!**

 **(Pause for effect...)**

 **I'm posting an unfinished, finish-able story!**

 **Yep, that's right. My friend and I (yes, the one you hear about all the time) are currently doing an HTTYD, Fem!Bilbo, Tooks-are-part-magic rewrite of The Hobbit Trilogy with an ACTUAL ENDING. I need to get in contact with one of my other writer friends and discuss how to put it into a post-able format, but this is a thing that is most definitely happening, and if we're doing it right, it's gonna KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF. I'll be putting it on Ao3 and here as simultaneously as I can.**

 **Moving on to this story now! This is actually a HUGE benchmark for my Strike Team-verse, because after several months of milling over how I wanted to put it together, the Strike Team is OFFICIALLY FILLED OUT. This means that a lot of the stories I've written I can now post (Hopefully). So I have three chapters, a rewritten Epilogue (that I haven't decided if I'm happy with), and I'll be saving the current Epilogue as is, because I can't bring myself to delete or rework it.**

 **Other big news: I'M GONNA TRY A POSTING SCHEDULE.**

 **I'll do my best to post every Sunday, both here and there. I understand this is gonna put me under a writing constraint, and I know I'm gonna fail cause no writer can write infinitely. I'll probably dredge through my old stuff and see if I can rework anything, or if I wanna just post it with a NOT MY BEST warning.**

 **In any event, you're not here to listen to me go on and on. You're here because Nikki has a collecting problem! On with the show!**

The car rolled to a stop at the edge of the warehouse district. The area was familiar to Nikki, as she often crept around the quiet buildings in search of things to repair. This time, however, she wasn't here for leisure. She was here for business.

The weak winter sun had almost fully slipped below the horizon and the temperature dropped rapidly. She'd taken the precaution of dressing warmly and was now thankful for it. She zipped up her coat completely and stuffed her hands in her pockets before continuing her walk.

"12-B…" Her contact, who refused to give anything but their designation, had asked to meet her at the district for a one-on-one conversation. 'Buzzsaw' was skittish but methodical, and Nikki got the feeling that Buzzsaw was tentatively hoping for admittance to the team. Whether that hope was to be fulfilled or not rested on this meeting.

Though, to be honest, the chances were better than not that they'd be let in. After all, she had _Megatron_ , so there clearly wasn't a lot she'd say no to.

Upon arriving at the warehouse, she checked from traps or cameras, and finding none, opened the large door. The warehouse was mostly empty, with a handful of crates at the back that carried an AIM stamp on their sides. That warranted further investigation after the current matter was put to rest. There was no-one on the ground, so experience told Nikki to look up.

There was a small, metallic, bird-like creature perched on one of the rafters. The gold metal on its wings reflected the dim light coming through the only window in the building, and its red optics shone like rubies. They watched her carefully, and when Nikki came what the bird – clearly Cybertronian – deemed close enough, it spoke.

"State your business." The feminine voice was cold and carried an air of authority that sounded rather familiar. Nikki stopped and stared at her for a moment, comparing her tone to Ravage's and finding the two uncannily similar. "Must I reiterate the command in a different language, human?"

"You called me here," Nikki answered simply. "I'm SHIELD Special Agent Nikki Skylar, leader of the Strike Team." The bird shifted, tilting her helm slightly and scrutinizing the human. Despite being under such a keen eye, she wasn't nervous in the slightest. "Are you Buzzsaw?"

"I am," she replied, in slightly less of a frigid tone. "You have told none of your visit?"

"No-one." It was the truth. Sorta. She told Laser she was meeting with a contact, but that was standard procedure. He knew to expect her back, or at least to hear from her, by no later than midnight. A failsafe, should any of her contacts – in this case, the mysterious Buzzsaw – turn out to be enemy agents or double-crossers. She hadn't told him _who_ she was meeting with. "Can I ask why the level of secrecy?"

In response, Buzzsaw flew down from the rafters, and when she was close enough for Nikki to really get a good look at her, the Avenger was shocked. Not necessarily by the reveal, but definitely by the fact that she hadn't heard about Buzzsaw earlier. The Minicon looked like a variation of Laserbeak. The wing design and colors were different, and she was smaller, but the beak, hoverjets, and claws were the same. And there, beneath the wing, was the femme's name, printed in a neat little Kaonian sigil.

Buzzsaw was one of Soundwave's kids.

"You must understand, I was unsure of the claims that a human had…taken in my…family." The hesitancy wasn't an indication of a lie, but of the struggle to control her emotions. "I had to verify that you were who you said you were."

"And have you?" Nikki asked, shifting from foot to foot. The air continued to chill, but something was setting her on edge, and it wasn't Buzzsaw.

"Unclear," she replied formally. "I do still have questions to ask before I allow you to take me to Avengers Tower."

"Why didn't you just scout out the place yourself?" Buzzsaw didn't immediately respond, so Nikki filled in the blank for her. "You were worried Soundwave might sense you."

"I'm not a fool," she snapped. If Nikki hadn't had almost 4 years' worth of experience with snippy ex-Decepticons, she might've taken the tone at face value. But she knew that Buzzsaw was simply feeling vulnerable and thus, was lashing out with anger in the hopes of making herself took stronger and more threatening than she actually was. "I know very well the wiles of you organics. Perhaps it isn't truly Soundwave and only feels like him. Perhaps none of them remember who they are. Perhaps you-"

"Controlled them?" Nikki finished. The Minicon glared at her. "Ravage tried that one already. I promise you, they stayed by their own choice."

"If you're lying to me, I _will_ find out, and I _will_ -"

 _Clunk._

Nikki held one finger to her lips, almost on instinct, and Buzzsaw stopped speaking immediately. The human crept to the door and, without sticking her head out, gave the area a good look. She then signaled for Buzzsaw to come closer, but the flier didn't obey. When Nikki looked to where she expected Buzzsaw to be and didn't see her, she looked back to where she actually was. Nikki gave her another incessant handwave, and Buzzsaw simply refused.

 _Clunk._

Nikki very slowly and quietly backed away from the door, looking around at the walls. There were no other windows, save the one on the front wall near the roof, so she saw nothing. Then she knelt down and pressed one hand flat against the concrete. Buzzsaw raised an optic ridge, and only then did she approach the human. "It's a Cybertronian, obviously," she hissed. "Either you have double crossed me or you were followed."

 _Clunk._

Now she was frustrated. "I have already-"

"It's a femme. Light frame, likely built for stealth," Nikki cut her off. "She's just about the other side of the building." She turned to look at Buzzsaw, who was hiding well that she was impressed. "I know you don't trust me yet, but when I say go, we're gonna sprint out the front door and head west, toward the parking lot. My car's there; I'll take us to the Tower and we'll see who's on our tail."

"You understand that this all makes you look guilty of arranging it?"

Nikki smirked. "Yeah, I know. Ready?" Without waiting for Buzzsaw to answer, she turned for the door and, as quietly as she could, jogged to it. Buzzsaw, though irked, followed soundlessly. They waited by the only way in for what seemed like an eternity. Nikki was just leaning down to check for any more vibrations when the pedestep came again.

 _Clunk._

"Go!" Nikki whisper-shouted. The two took off like a pair of rockets and dashed across the way, toward the next warehouse. The door was closed, to they ran around the left side. Their pursuer caught them escaping and immediately gave chase. A backwards glance from Buzzsaw revealed their identity.

"It's Nightbird," the Minicon informed tersely. Nikki hissed out a curse, then fell back by only a second, allowing her to get her arm around the bird and direct her through a window. Nikki received an indignant squawk, a couple claw marks, and a shoulder full of glass. Nightbird slowed to a stop just outside the window, then began to slowly circle the building. Nikki seemed to take no notice of their imminent danger, getting up with a small groan and brushing her shoulder off with an ice-coated hand.

"Don't _ever_ do that again," Buzzsaw growled. Nikki brushed her hands off, then looked up at the bird. After a quick sweep, she determined that Buzzsaw wasn't injured and got to her feet.

"I didn't exactly have enough time to shout 'Window!' and I don't think you'd have gotten the gist of it, anyway," Nikki explained, punctuating the exclamation by raising and opening her hands while keeping her elbows at her side. Buzzsaw remained unimpressed. She gave the warehouse a once over as well, seeming very relaxed and casual for someone being pursued by a 20-foot tall killer robot.

"I do hope you realize you've trapped us in here," Buzzsaw remarked coolly, changing the subject. "We have no fast way of escape, and it will not be long before Nightbird either tears the roof off or switches to holoform."

"I didn't just jump into any old warehouse," Nikki replied, strolling toward one of the stacks of crates in the center.

"Didn't you?" Buzzsaw retorted. "It seems to be about your MO."

"You read my case files?" Nikki asked, turning an amused look back on the haughty Cybertronian. Buzzsaw simply arched her optic ridge again, and Nikki chuckled. "When I get back, I'm gonna have to ream somebody for not mentioning you."

"They are secretive," she offered as an explanation. Nikki paused, turning over the statement in her mind, as well as several responses, and kept all of them to herself. "What is so special about this warehouse?"

Nikki wandered around the crates, looking at them, then looking at the ceiling. "This is a SHIELD warehouse, so it's got a few tricks up its sleeve. What I wanna know is…" She strode to the window and knocked out some of the glass to get Nightbird's attention. It worked spectacularly, for the silver and purple assassin turned her yellow optics on the human and charged her. Nikki simply stepped back far enough that when Nightbird put her arm through the window, she couldn't reach the human. Only once the femme realized that she was getting nowhere did Nikki talk. "Hiya. I got a question. Why chase me?"

Nightbird didn't answer, opting to glare at her. "You are aware she has only verbally addressed only one mech in her short lifetime?" Buzzsaw asked.

"Megs, right? Oh. Is _that_ it? You're mad because he shut you down and you wanna take it out on me?" The tone Nikki used could only have been described as taunting, and it hit its mark.

"I will exact revenge on the one who corrupted my lord and has reduced him to servitude," the assassin hissed. Nikki's grin went from mocking to almost predatory, with a sharp edge that belied her cunning. "When you fall, your group of _traitors_ shall fall as well."

"And Megatron?" Nikki's voice wasn't quite distant, wasn't quite haughty, and wasn't quite cold. It was, however, very threatening, and behind her, Buzzsaw discreetly powered up her weapons.

"If he does not see the error of his ways, I will be forced to eliminate him," Nightbird answered.

"Good to know," was all Nikki replied with. She turned on her heel and quickly strode over to the crates. She waved Buzzsaw on, but once again, the femme didn't comply. Nikki telekinetically moved the boxes and revealed a secret ladder down. She looked over to Buzzsaw, but didn't wave. The message in her eyes was clear.

Make your choice.

Wisely or not, Buzzsaw chose to follow. She dived into the hole, and Nikki followed, replacing the crates behind her. Nikki slid down the sides of the ladder until she hit the bottom, and no sooner had she done so, they heard the roof being ripped off the warehouse. "You knew she would do that," Buzzsaw remarked.

"I kinda guessed she was gonna say most of what she said," the girl added. "But I had to be sure. And if she's lying, then she played me like a fiddle. Not that it'll matter much. By the time she finds the ladder, we're gonna be long gone."

"Not if you continue to stand there and gloat about your planning." It was pitch black, but Buzzsaw could see in the dark, and Nikki was grinning with delight. "There are no other Decepticons in the area, but we must move quickly if we want to escape undetected."

"Yeah, about that…I don't actually know these tunnels so well," Nikki admitted.

"Primus have mercy on my spark… Follow me; my scanners are already sweeping the tunnel system," the bird ordered. Nikki fell into step behind her without a single complaint.

Buzzsaw noted her willingness to follow the human's plan and decided that perhaps this wouldn't be a complete disaster.


	9. The Trine

In hindsight, it probably would've been a good idea to tell someone that they weren't _actually_ going for a quick test run of the made-up newfangled flying contraption Nikki invented. They weren't going to be back by 5, and they weren't going to be home with 'plenty of time for dinner.' At this rate, Nikki figured they'd be lucky if they made it home before the search party went out.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" Ripclaw asked uncertainly, glancing around the hallway. "It _is_ getting late."

"I know what I'm doing," Nikki replied confidently. "We'll be a little late, but this is the first time we've gotten to one of Shockwave's locations before he's torn it down, and this might be our only chance for a while to get any info on the other Predacons." Ripclaw couldn't argue with that, as she was just as excited to find out more about her species as Nikki was.

The confusing maze of hallways rivaled the complexity of the MECH ones they were so used to walking, a fact for which they were both grateful. Still, one couldn't help but see the similarities between those halls and these, with the Energon stains on the floor, the empty cells that were filled with strange contraptions whose purpose couldn't have been anything close to good. It unsettled them both, and by the time they got to the main computer room, they were both jumpy.

"Yay, computers," Ripclaw said. Nikki snorted, then got to work. She might've been only a decent hacker, but she had a few tricks up her sleeves. After all, one does not live with a brood of master hackers without picking up some useful things. And Shockwave's security systems were almost hilariously out of date, it was far easier to get in than she anticipated. Of course, finding anything proved to be a challenge.

"I'm starting to wish we'd brought Ravage; he'd be able to actually _download_ all this. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of classified, helpful stuff in here," Nikki remarked almost ruefully.

"Someone's coming!" Ripclaw suddenly whispered. While the Predacon was quick to dart behind cover, Nikki was a bit too devoted to her work. It wasn't as if she was _ignoring_ Ripclaw. It was just that she was halfway through the search and she intended to go as far through it as she could before she had to hide. "Nikki!"

"Hang on!" There. A file marked 'Project Predacon.' It didn't have the usual 'DISCONTINUED' label attached to it, which made Nikki's heart start to race. It was still going. The project was still on, so somewhere, there was a facility that was holding Predacons.

The hiss of the doors took her completely off-guard, and the Avenger dropped to the base of the computer. The thundering footsteps approached the terminal she was working at. She was _trapped_ , seconds away from being caught, and she needed an out _now_. She glanced to the computer next to her and got an absolutely crazy idea.

She darted between the dislodged panel and the rest of the casing of the computer next to the one she was working at. Whoever it was walked straight up to the computer she was working at a moment ago. There was a long pause, during which she did her best to hide any signature of herself, before a couple keystrokes did away with her search. It was an agonizingly long wait, each breath taken slowly and with the fear that it would be enough noise to give her away. What seemed like an hour was really only about five minutes, and the Cybertronian eventually left. Nikki waited an extra couple minutes, and would've waited longer, had Ripclaw not walked over and bent down. "Nikki!"

"I'm here," the girl whispered back, leaving her hiding place. Ripclaw looked shaken but awed. "Who was it?"

"Shockwave. It was Shockwave," she answered. Nikki blinked almost uncomprehendingly at her for a few seconds. "The lab isn't abandoned. That's why it's still in such good shape."

"We need to leave, _now_ ," Nikki said. Ripclaw nodded, and switched to her holoform. The two women then went back the way they'd came, sticking to the shadows. They made it to the edge of the most used section when they heard it.

"Back off!" It was a mech, a good distance off from the faintness of his voice, and he was clearly panicked. It stopped them both in their tracks. They shared a look, the meaning of which was clear.

There was someone who needed help, and they were going to have to get themselves into some serious trouble to help him. But liberating someone form the hands of that crazy scientist? Well worth the trouble.

Nikki led the charge, like she always did, and they were able to pin down the room from the almost continuous shouts. There she paused, trying to come up with a plan. Ripclaw, however, already had one and executed it, triggering the fire alarm and then dragging Nikki behind cover. It wasn't more then a minute before Shockwave emerged, examining the hallway before advancing. Once he was around the corner, the two rushed the room.

There was only one mech in there. He was a purple and black Seeker of a rather thin frame design, who looked strikingly similar to Starscream. His frame was littered with gashes, about a quarter of which were currently slowly oozing Energon, and one of his wings was sporting a scratch that was so deep, Nikki wasn't sure if she was imagining being able to see straight through it. His fear-filed red optics went even wider when he caught sight of the pair. None of them said anything for a long moment, and when someone did speak, it was him who broke the silence. "You're not with him, are you?"

"My name's Nikki Skylar, and we're here to bust you out," she introduced herself. He looked skeptical, until Ripclaw switched back to her Cybertronian frame. "Rip, start working the restraints, but-"

"Be careful, I know," the Predacon finished. She approached as slowly as she could afford to, clearly cognizant of the fact that the Seeker was panicky. "You got the door?"

"And the computers. Let's see how well he handles this." With a few keystrokes, Nikki introduced a virus into the system that froze all the computers. "He better hope this place isn't networked to his other labs, or I just screwed all his files." Ripclaw snickered, but it was slightly more subdued than it'd normally be.

Once she got the Seeker out, he tentatively tested his servos and legs, and upon deeming himself able to walk, turned to Nikki, who'd made her way back to the other two. "The name's Skywarp," he said. Nikki connected it with Starscream, remembered that Skywarp and the other member of the Trine were supposed to be dead, and filed all of that away for contemplation at a later date. "What were you two doing here?" he asked suspiciously.

"Info diving. We gotta go; he'll be back any minute now," Nikki answered. She made a break for the door, Ripclaw and Skywarp following.

"My brothers are still here; we have to rescue them as well," Skywarp informed. Nikki dropped back. letting him take the lead.

"Show the way and we'll get 'em out."

As it turned out, he wasn't exactly sure where they were, and he kept muttering about bad memories and "the Bond not working," none of which either Strike Team member understood.

Eventually, Ripclaw decided she'd have better luck with her limited scanner capabilities and turned them on. "I've got two faint signals two hallways down."

"That's gotta be them!" Skywarp exclaimed, dashing down the hallway.

"They're the other way!" Ripclaw shouted. He skidded to a stop, turned on his heel, and resumed his mad dash.

"That's gotta be them!" he repeated.

The two mechs were, as Nikki suspected, Thundercracker and Starscream. Thundercracker had a scratch that crossed his left optic, which was clearly damaged to the point of being completely turned off. Both of his wings were scratched, though the scratches weren't as deep as Skywarp's. His right leg was a strange burn mark on it, and frame was also littered with scratches and gashes, more so than Skywarp.

The latter was the most messed up out of all of them. Starscream's wings – which Nikki had definitely admired – were torn to pieces. The edge of his right one was actually missing and his left one was partially torn off at the joint. There wasn't a single unmarred part of his frame, which was so scratched up that not a single shiny spot remained, and his left arm was mangled from the elbow down.

Ripclaw swore in whatever language Predacons used, and Nikki clenched her fist until she was sure her palms were cut. The two mechs looked up at the trio's arrival, and while they viewed Skywarp with evident relief, they looked at Ripclaw and Nikki with suspicion. Starscream, in particular, seemed unpleasantly shocked that Nikki was there.

"Get sick of playing with the traitor?" Starscream remarked sardonically. It was clear he was referring to Megatron, and Nikki felt sorry for him. He was clearly trying to put up a more fierce appearance than he actually possessed at the moment. "Or are you simply rubbing your freedom in my faceplates."

"We're here to rescue you," she answered calmly. The brothers behind bars shared a look.

"Mech, _please_ , we gotta get out of here. Shockwave's just about done with us," Skywarp begged. Ripclaw didn't wait for an order before grabbing hold of the bars and attempting to yank them straight out of the wall. It didn't work, so she pounded on them. The loud noise startled Thundercracker, who flinched badly, getting an sympathetic and apologetic look from the Predacon.

Nikki took a more analytical approach. "Doors don't operate off the files, so these should still work." She nodded to Ripclaw, who placed her palm on the ground for Nikki to step onto, then lifted her to the control panel. Skywarp simply clung to the bars, constantly looking over his shoulder at the far hallway. A couple increasingly frustrated button combinations later, the bars slid into the floor, and Thundercracker and Starscream stepped out of the cell about as evenly as they could manage to. Skywarp was quick to pull them into a relieved embrace.

The fire alarm stopped right about the same time that the intruder alarm kicked in. "We're busted," Ripclaw stated.

"Thank you for the obvious," Starscream shot back. To his utter shock, she smirked instead of scowled.

"How fast can you move?" she asked them. In response, Thundercracker and Skywarp both wrapped one of Starscream's servos around their shoulders and nodded at her. Nikki nodded back, and the group moved forward.

They encountered few security enforcers, but plenty of security measures. Unfortunately for Shockwave, none of his doors were designed to withstand the rage of a Phoenix, so they did little to slow the group. The only real problem was the door at the very end. It was far thicker than the rest of the ones they'd gone through thus far, and it was closing too quickly for them to slip through.

Memories started to flash across her vision, and though they almost sent her into a panic, they also gave her the _worst_ idea.

She planted her feet and tapped into her telekinesis, stopping the doors from advancing. "Go!" she ordered. Ripclaw faltered, but the Trine didn't, and only Nikki's 'Don't question me' look sent Ripclaw after them. They made it all the way through, but this presented another problem: Nikki was too far away from the doors to make it through, and she couldn't run and keep them open.

"Nikki, behind you!" Ripclaw warned. A quick glance over her shoulder showed that Shockwave was right on her heels. He aimed his cannon, and for a moment, Nikki stalled out.

Luckily for her, a familiar silver blur zipped past her and fired off a volley of shots at Shockwave. The Decepticon's shots went wide, peppering the walls around her. When she looked back at the door, Megatron was there, bracing it open. "Move!" he shouted, and her legs complied before her mind told them to.

"Laser, let's go!" she shouted back at her partner. He broke off his attack and followed so fast that Nikki's almost overwhelmed mind couldn't track his movements. The two rolled through the door just as Megatron let go of it. "Man, am I glad to see you two!"

"Same here," Laserbeak replied. Ahead of them stood a GroundBridge, and Nikki wasn't convinced she was actually seeing it until Ripclaw vanished through it. "I'll explain on the other side."

"I can't wait to hear this one," Nikki retorted as they jumped through.

* * *

"I'd warn you about him, but I'm sure you already know what you're getting into." Nikki smiled somewhat wearily and looked up from the Very Official email she was writing to Fury, explaining that she was 'adopting' another three ex-Decepticons. And the fact that they'd hacked into Mearing's GroundBridge. And that they'd accidentally caused an hour long blackout with the energy feedback surge. Megatron – in holoform as usual – walked up and looked over her shoulder. "Think you need some more apologetic language in there."

"Why?" she asked, continuing to type. "I'm not sorry. Mostly. Well, at least not about the Trine."

He scoffed. "You will be. Give them a week, and they'll drive you mad."

"I lived with Laserbeak for a whole year. I lived with _just_ him and Knock Out. I think I can handle Captain Drama Queen, Hyper-Teleporter, and Done™," she retorted. He gave a 'Fair enough' head tilt and took one of the empty chairs at the bar.

"What would you have said if someone told you this was what you were going to be doing four years ago?" he suddenly asked. She stopped typing, looked up at the far wall, then over to him. "I know what _I'd_ have done with anyone who dared to insinuate I'd be anything but a victorious leader of the Decepticons."

"Eh, I'd probably hit 'em with a pipe," she replied casually. He snorted, then turned his bemused expression on her. "Yeah, I didn't expect this either, but y'know, I wouldn't trade it for anything." He nodded, and for almost 15 minutes, they sat in complete silence, reminiscing.

"You know they're not gonna make it easy."

"Wouldn't be any fun if it was."

"Every time I manage to forget how you manage to reach such amounts of insanity that are required to make all of this work, you say something like that and I wonder how I ever forgot in the first place," he added. She laughed. Another beat of silence. "Who do you think is going to break first, Starscream or Fury?"

Nikki smirked. "Let's find out."

She hit send.


	10. Starscream

**A/N: I'm posting on a rush since I missed both Sunday and Monday, so my super quick explanation is that I graduated from American Heritage Girls, which I have been with for 7 years, and that took my Sunday, and Monday I had to SCHOOL and schedule a meeting with my college advisor, which I am going to in 15 minutes, so wish me luck and enjoy what I hope does everyone's favorite 120-decibel Seeker justice!**

To say the week was hell for the overwhelmed girl wouldn't have touched on the terribleness of the situation.

It sounded like a simple thing: Get the Strike Team – and their three new potential members – to the World Security Meeting that happened once a year at the Autobots' island base of Diego Garcia. It really should have been simple. They were professionals, weren't they? Anyone who could stop the Unmaker from 'reclaiming his right' – which it, technically speaking, was; it was _his_ body they were all walking around on – could surely handle organizing for a week-long debate about security and secrecy and whatever other rot the fleshlings yelled at each other about during these things.

But to look at Skylar now, one would think the Unmaker had a twin, and that he and said twin were bearing down on Avengers Tower, intent on leveling the building. To put it shortly, she was a wreck.

To elaborate on said wrecked state, she was dressed in her SHIELD catsuit, but she was missing her utility belt, and the sleeves looked as if she'd tried to roll them up. Obviously, she'd failed, so the right one was an inch higher than the left, and the perfectionist wasn't paying it any mind at all. Her hair was pulled back with a clip that was an appalling shade of neon orange. Really, it was hideous. And so unlike the self-proclaimed commander that Starscream just assumed she'd borrowed it form the Tower's resident 'fashionista,' Van Dyne. She was hunched over the computer while standing, which was unusual for her and indicated intense concentration. She kept rocking from one foot to the other, something he had come to learn was a nervous tic.

All in all, she looked as miserable as she sounded, acted, and must've felt.

Good thing Starscream didn't care. He might've been worried about her otherwise.

"Come _on_ , work with me here!" she pled desperately. The computer at which she shouted didn't do as she wished. She ran a hand down her face, growling in such a manner that the Seeker wondered if she'd learnt it from Lord Megatron, who preferred holos to frames these days and had taken an inexplicable shining to the human.

But there was a frustrated edge to it that Megatron never touched, not even on his worst days. The warlord had learned early on – far before Starscream had ever heard his name – to keep any emotions that might be perceived as 'weak' bottled deep inside where only he would ever know about them.

"You do understand that it can't _actually_ hear or respond to you, right?" Starscream asked, the acerbic tone in his voice that had become a staple for his personality shining through spectacularly. She whirled on her heel, turning her frustrated gaze on him. Most would probably flee or slink away. He'd seen worse from Megatron on some of the warlord's better days. He wasn't cowed.

She looked tired. Even beneath the makeup he was mildly surprised to see her wearing, she looked tired.

"Why don't you do something useful for once?" the girl snapped, failing to keep her tone even. He smirked. She'd never say anything as biting or hurtful like that on usual days. He always did take pleasure in seeing people's breaking points. She looked close to hers. He imagined it would be entertaining when she finally did snap. If he was lucky, she might do it at the meeting. If he was unusually lucky, she might even turn her sharp tongue on the Prime. He'd pay good shanix to see this 5'4" nothing screaming out a 32' tall being who could crush her beneath his heel and not know he'd done it.

Not that the 'pacifist' ever would. Not that Skylar would snap at him. T'was but a fantasy.

"Like?" was all he said, leaning against the table he currently had his back to and crossing his arms. His red eyes blazed a challenge. She remained unmoved, standing stiff as a pillar, but he could see her start crumbling inside. She was usually a good actress – one of the few things he admitted to admiring about her – but today she was off her game. Her eyes told all, and he took every advantage he could get to turn her emotions back on her, like daggers.

"Go find your brothers, _please_ ," she bit out, "and then perhaps you'd be so kind as to find the twins."

"Hmm," he hummed, as if thinking. Though technically a part of her 'Strike Team', he was yet to associate himself with their label. In his processor, this was simply a very good shield and Skywarp's current ridiculous hobby. They did owe her, but that was a fact he often conveniently 'forgot.' Nevertheless, he was curious as to where his brothers were and so complied with that part of the request.

He reached out through the Trine bond – in fleshy holoform they might be, but the bond remained strong – and located the two. Skywarp was dashing around the floor beneath them, with Thundercracker 'hot on his heels,' as the humans said. "Skywarp is being pursued by Thundercracker – for a good reason, I suspect – and I do believe that my attempting to locate Soundwave's unholy terrors from the Pit wouldn't end favorably for anyone involved. That wouldn't help you, would it?"

The way she stiffened – so methodically, so robotically, so smoothly – made him think he'd actually done it. She might have just snapped.

But she only deflated, and despite being only 5'4" to his 5'8", she seemed so much smaller. Vulnerable. Weak.

He wondered how one so powerful could emit such an aura.

"Fine," she said, and her tone was neither furious nor faltering. It was only empty. "Fine. You go do…whatever, I guess." She turned back to the computer, which was still showing the same screen – a frozen one, he guessed – and let out a long sigh. His own lungs hurt from just hearing it.

But he'd won. She'd excused him from doing any more work for this insipid trip, and he was free to ignore it till she came and dragged him to her ship like she always did. He uncoiled – was that the right word for the movement? Never mind; it hardly mattered – and strode past her. "Good luck," he said, not meaning a single syllable of it.

He did have the decency to close the door behind him, and he wished he hadn't looked back at her. She was so small, so beaten, so…sad. She'd never looked that hopeless, not even when the entire Decepticon army cut off their only escape in that Dark Energon mine a few months back. No, he was quite certain that not even death itself could defeat her, and had a simple meeting thousands of miles away that they hadn't even _gotten to_ yet finished the tenacious warrior?

A flicker of sadness blossomed in his own chest. He dismissed it quickly, shutting the doors and striding down the hallway. He had just managed to secure his own escape. For the next few hours, he would be as unhelpful as he wanted to be, hiding himself away in either Stark's lab – he was still a scientist, beneath all his snake-like guile – or the humongous library the Tower housed. He would insult the fleshlings 11 times out of 10, every day of the week – _"And twice on Sundays,"_ he heard Skylar's voice whisper in his mind, his own processor turning traitor on him – but they had good literature, and anything Cybertronian was either destroyed or inaccessible at this point.

He did eventually choose the library, settling down in one particularly pretentious-looking armchair. He plucked one of Charles Dickens' books from the shelf nearest to him and opened to the page he'd been on last time he'd opened this book.

But it bothered him. Five pages he read, and at the end of the fifth, he realized he remembered nothing at all of the story, only thinking of how sad Skylar had looked. He'd gone back and reread the whole thing, and was left with the same result. Along the third try, somewhere on the fourth page, he was hit with a frightening conclusion. One so horrifying that he'd have slapped himself in the face if he could make his arm move.

He _cared_.

Skylar being so defeated, so sad and overwhelmed and alone _bothered him_ , in a way that was reserved for his brothers alone. He wanted to go fix it, and he couldn't explain _why_.

 _"She just…makes you like her."_

Ravage's voice echoed in his helm.

The memory was as clear as it had been moments after he'd experienced it.

 _"And you can't explain why, but you want to help her, want to stay, want to fight alongside her. Primus knows I'm the_ last _mech who'd get sentimental over any human, but…she made me want to stay, and she never even asked me to. She just offered a place until I could decide what I wanted to do, and I never left."_ Then Ravage had looked at him, looked _through_ him. And then at his brothers, bantering with Skylar and Knock Out, as if they had always been there and always would be. _"You'll get to that place too, eventually. It's gonna feel like Megatron punched you upside the helm, or like Nikki hit you in the faceplates with a frying pan, but…you'll get there. And you'll_ want _to be there._ That's _why she's special."_

Damn the cat.

He closed his book and put it in the shelf once more before heading back to the kitchen/dining room/living room to see how he could assist her. When he opened the door, he didn't see her anywhere. The laptop was still where it'd been, with the exception that the one side was turned out over the edge of the counter. Should he slam the door now, it'd probably topple off the edge.

He assumed she must've moved on, and shrugged, beginning to close the door and leave…

…and he heard a small sound.

He wasn't sure what it even was, only that he had come from where she'd been earlier. Cautiously, he walked around to that side of the counter, and found her in a heap on the floor. Had she not been upright and her eyes open but cast downward, he'd have been more than a little concerned that someone poisoned her. Not that anyone in the Tower would; he'd determined long before that every single person here cared about and for her. Slipping something into her drink to make her sick enough not to do any work, potentially – but only under extenuating circumstances. Not fatally poisoning her. No.

She was crying.

She'd only had concealer on – he guessed that she'd been halfway through getting 'dolled up' by Van Dyne before she'd been called away to do something else – but it was smeared, and all but missing from beneath her eyes. It was clear she hadn't slept in at least a day. She didn't even look up at him as he crouched down, only blinking once. Another tear slipped from her eye.

Primus, how was he supposed to even _do_ this?

"Nikki?" Her first name felt strange in his mind, and felt even stranger coming off his lips. She turned her gaze to him, and it looked so dull and bleak that he was stopped in his tracks.

"I can't," she whispered. She looked down. "I just can't _do it_."

"Not alone," he said. Well, where had _that_ come from? She looked back up at him, blinking. "I have come to the gravest of realizations." She straightened just a little. Good. "At some point over the last few months, I have come to… _care_ …about you."

Her expression changed. It wasn't a smile, wasn't a frown, wasn't hopeful or hopeless. It was that curious mix of emotions that played out across her face at the same time and made her look like she both knew what you were doing and expected it. "Horrifying, I know," he added wryly. That got a small smile, and a huff of amusement, to top it off. "So I have come to assist you in gathering your collection of lunatics."

She laughed. Actually, properly laughed. It was a sound of relief and amusement and _hope_ , and it sounded good. "Where shall I start?"

She sniffled, then looked at her knees. She nodded, gathering herself, then looked back up at him. "Can you get Warp and TC, please?" He nodded and headed off to corral his brothers. He glanced back at her as he was leaving the room. She'd gotten to her feet, and wiped away her tears. She caught his gaze and smiled gratefully. He found himself offering her a small smile in return.

Special, indeed.


	11. Epilogue

**A/N: I CAN EXPLAIN**

 **I know I've been off radar for a couple weeks and have missed three posting days, but I was sick. Tl;dr, I went to a homeschool prom, got sick, had nothing in me to post on Sunday or Tuesday, and when I felt better, I decided to resume my proper posting schedule. Except yesterday, I rolled out of bed to help the fam plant some trees, then went from there to a friend's graduation, then went front there to a spur-of-the-moment hang-out game night, and didn't get home till 9. By then I was wiped, and I fell into bed shortly after, so here we are on Monday. ...that's not so short after all. Whoops.**

 **In any event, I'm back and I'm posting again! I'm STILL not happy with this one, but like I've said, I don't know how to fix it, so I will simply leave it. I hope you guys like it!**

Josh Walker had known her for the grand total of a week and a half, and he'd decided that she was insane. But that was okay, because he was used to insane. He missed it, really. And her crazy team wasn't all that different from his crazy family back in Texas. Both sassed each other, were unusually large and somewhat unruly, and could easily take over a small town. The main difference was that the Walkers rode horses and wrangled cattle, and the Strike Team went around picking and finishing fights.

"Sorry about that," Nikki said as she entered the room, carrying two mugs of hot chocolate and looking very sheepish. It wasn't something he was used to seeing from her, and he could tell no-one else was used to it, either. Which, of course, meant that it was him causing the reaction, and he didn't really have to guess at why. "I really shoulda guessed the twins were gonna do something like that."

He chuckled. "Not a problem, Nik." He took the mug she offered him, and she took the seat beside him at the bar. "I'm used to meddling." She chuckled as well and took a long sip. "I gotta say, you're pretty remarkable. To handle everything that gets thrown at you and your team with the same 'go-get-em' attitude day in and day out? I'd have slapped someone by now."

"Who says I didn't?" she retorted. They both laughed, then fell into a companionable silence. She looked around the room, then back to the polished counter. She stared at her reflection in it for a long moment.

Nikki?"

"This is where it started," she remarked quietly. Josh looked at her. "Right here. I was reading my book – don't even remember which one it was, now – and there was construction work being done on this floor. Laser came down from the vent, spouting about the Decepticons and taking the Tower, and I clobbered him over the back of the helm with a pipe."

Josh huffed a chuckle. "And then you decided to collect ex-Deceptions like stamps," he joked. She smiled, but she was still caught in memory.

"I wonder what it would've been like if I'd actually listened to Tony and stayed out of here," she whispered, something distinctively haunted in her tone. Josh opened his mouth to ask if she was alright, but never got the chance to speak.

"It was Sherlock," Laserbeak announced from the doorway. "And you hit my optic."

She laughed, the sadness in her eyes vanishing in an instant. "Ah, yes, how could I forget?" More silence, filled only by the quiet whir of Laserbeak's hoverjets as he flew to the bar and landed on it. "It's been a wild ride."

"And we're not even close to done," Laserbeak finished.


	12. Original Epilogue

**A/N: Because I am sentimental and I'm not sure if anyone actually LIKED this, I have decided to repost it. Pls enjoy!**

Nikki rarely did any solo missions anymore. She didn't mind. She'd grown comfortable with having others around almost constantly. She always (usually) had the option of being alone if she needed or wanted to be, and she was never bored.

She had no idea how it happened. It just sort of...did. In all honesty, it probably stemmed from her need to repay a debt she both likely already had 4 times over and never would finish repaying.

Someone else gave her a second chance. She gave others a second chance. She never expected that to turn into a team, or a family. (And really, didn't they mean virtually the same thing, given time and opportunities?)

Laserbeak was her partner. Had been since Day 1, would be till one of them checked out. Maybe both. Only two people out of the billions she'd met knew her better than he did. They were near telepathic on the field, knowing how, where, and when the other would move, dodge, and strike. He had her back, she had his. Sometimes they were Siamese twins, and sometimes they were polar opposites, but they were inseparable.

Knock Out was the semi-sane one. Sure, he had crazy ideas that he (sometimes) did on his own, and she chided him for it. Sure, she had crazy ideas that she (sometimes) did on her own, and he chided her for it. There were also crazy ideas that they both did, and someone else had to do the disciplining. He was the voice of reason for her and Laserbeak more often than not, and they were the ones who encouraged him to come out of his shell and live a little.

Ravage was one of her closest confidants and loyal friends. He was the serious balance to her lighthearted jokes, the one who followed them into danger shouting 'This is a bad idea!', and the one running with them away from the danger shouting 'I told you this was a bad idea!' She helped him with his trust issues and realize the rules could be bent a little. He was the one who helped her with her self-confidence issues and realize that not every rule was meant to be bent or broken.

Soundwave was the silent guardian. He stood by her and with her, even when he knew it would end badly. He offered advice and a sympathetic audio when she needed it, and sometimes advised her when she didn't. She was never one for being guarded but didn't seem to mind him doing it. Long as he wasn't too excessive, of course. She got him to open up a bit more and be a part of the team (both teams, sometimes to his chagrin when Barton zipped down the halls with Frenzy and Rumble in tow, and Stark and Ravage in pursuit).

Frenzy and Rumble were the psycho little cousins she was protective of, and if anyone messed with either of them, when the twins were done with them, she would go after the idiot (as would literally everyone else on the team, but it was an unspoken rule that she got third shot at the poor moron, after Ripclaw, who seemed to adopt them as her own brothers). She did her best to curb their destructive tendencies (sometimes), and they did their best to get her involved with every prank they could.

She and Megatron were kindred souls. Both had things they wouldn't talk about to anyone, save each other on nights where he couldn't slip into recharge because his processor was too busy remembering all the terrible things he'd done, and she couldn't sleep because of nightmares. Both had done awful things that they regretted, and both were trying to make up for it. She seemed much more mature when holding a conversation with him (50% of the time), and she was one of the few people who could get him to act anything close to immature.

Ripclaw was a very independent femme, and she sometimes had a tough time accepting the fact that she needed help. Nikki, having already gone through that, helped her through it. She and Nikki got close because they could both relate to being alone, being overprotected by everyone else, and being a bit overprotective themselves.

She hadn't asked for it, couldn't have seen it coming, didn't plan for it, and wouldn't have changed a thing. This was Nikki's team, and she wouldn't trade it for the world.


End file.
